By Nizamuddin Rezahi in Khaama Press, Mar 14, 2023
The dire economic situation in Afghanistan has forced children as young as ten years old to go out for work instead of attending classes, who earn just over $1 for a full workday.
Poverty has been a major problem that has forced children throughout Afghanistan to work in order to survive. These children do a variety of hard work from selling plastic bags on the streets, to working at mechanical shops, pushing carts, digging up the soil, filling multitudes of black plastic bags for seedlings, and working at brick kilns
In certain families, a ten-year-old boy is the guardian of an extended family who has to look after everything including food, clothes, and other basic needs.
Ahmad from Kunar province says, “he as has three sisters and four brothers, and his father is not young enough to work. So he has the responsibility to work and look after his family.” He barely earns more than 100 Afghanis per day, and his family has to survive with it.
Despite the inflow of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan from the international community, hunger and poverty are at their pecks throughout the war-torn country. Ordinary people complain about not receiving life-saving aid.
Since the return of the Taliban to power in August 2021, the country has been plagued with serious economic challenges. Children as young as ten years old are forced to work to support their families, with no prospect for a better future.
Among many other challenges, “Child Labor” has become so prevalent across Afghanistan over the past 18 months. Children advocacy organizations have provided detailed reports in this regard, however, nothing would change for the better considering the terrible humanitarian situation in the country.
Save the Children, an organization that works to help children in Afghanistan, in a recent report puts the number of children in need of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan at 14 million. The organization said that 73,000 children with severe acute malnutrition are under treatment by Save the Children. https://www.khaama.com/extreme-poverty-forces-children-to-quit-school-start-work-afghanistan/
