ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATION OF CHILD DEPRIVATION ACROSS NEIGHBORHOODS IN BIDA, NIGERIA

 

 

ABSTRACT

Child deprivation and how it can be reduced is a trending issue both at the global and national level especially in this 21st century. Despite the numerous policy and strategies put in place by the different tiers of government in Nigeria since independent in other to reduce Child deprivation in the country, deprivation is still persisting and has become a complex phenomenon that covers many dimensions of human and social behavior. It has widely been accepted that deprivation is a major cause of environmental degradation. Therefore, the conceptualization and measurement of deprivation continues to be challenging due to its multi-dimensional nature. Although, literatures are available on child deprivation but, many are outside issues that does not focus on deprivation- environmental degradation nexus across the spatial units of Bida Town, which this research seek to address, by measuring child deprivation through mapping and adopting multi-dimensional approach in analyzing the extent and contribution of child deprivation in the 12 neighborhoods in the regional headquarters of Nupe Kingdom. The sample size of 213 households was derived at 95% confidence level using sample size formula. Household data sets were generated through targeted physical and socio-economic surveys and the selection of households was achieved through multistage sampling which involves cluster and simple random technique. KOBO Collect toolkit was used for a total of 213 respondents, and the data collected was analysed using descriptive statistics and multi-dimensional poverty measurement metric. The study revealed that multidimensional child deprivation headcount in Bida is 8.3%, while 72.4% only experienced child deprivation from a uni-dimension. The study recorded an aggregate multidimensional deprivation index of 0.62 and an intensity of 0.81. Also, the study reveals nutritional Z-Score of

1.5 for the children. Field finding was able to reveal peculiar and divergent cases of child deprivation which cut across Education, Assets, Health, and Living conditions. As there are high variations ranging from High deprivation to very low, and from Ultra deprived to Non-deprived across neighborhoods, local and child specific as against national or regional anti-poverty 1ntervention programmes should be considered as veritable options for the fight against this national problem.