Afghanistan has been in a continuous state of civil war since the 1970’s. As is known, war affects all aspects of life. The Afghan war has affected billions of people worldwide and it has had its biggest effect on the children of Afghanistan. About half of the country’s population is under the age of 18, which means 15 million children.
Out of that 15 million, 5 million are under the age of 5, according to UNICEF’s statistics. The children of Afghanistan lead dangerous and tortured lives because of these wars. Afghanistan lacks proper child labor laws, health and nutrition programs, and the education that is necessary for these children to grow into civilized citizens of their country.
Globally, there are 215 million children who are involved in child labor. In Afghanistan, this problem worsens by the day. Because of all the wars, especially after the Soviet and Taliban invasions, many of the men and women were wounded. These invasions also left many children orphaned and left to survive the streets alone.
Those children became adults, who grew up without proper schooling and who, for the most part, are illiterate. While those adults survived decades of war and violence they do not possess the education, and/or professional skills to use in the workforce to be able to provide for their families. The children are forced to step up and go out into the workforce. They become the main, and in some cases, the sole, breadwinner for their families and continue the cycle – contributing in high poverty and low literacy rate.
Some estimate that as much as 30 percent of school aged children are now in the workforce, of that 30 percent, 21 percent are employed in shops and 13 as street vendors. They work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and can be found doing anything from working on plantations to repairing vehicles, tailoring, and farming. In Kabul, and many other major cities of Afghanistan, these children shine shoes, beg, clean cars, sell plastic bags, scrap metal, paper, and firewood on the streets.
A child’s rights officer at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) says, “Both male and female children have been the increasing victims of war and criminality in Afghanistan but the government has not done enough to alleviate their hardship and to reduce their deprivation.”
Efforts to reduce the child labor rates are underway. According to Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child has the right to education, and free education should be accessible to all children on the basis of equal opportunity. Afghan law also mandates education up to the ninth grade and provides free education up to university level. Afghanistan also made plans in 2006 at the London Convention to have 50 percent of girls and 75 percent of boys enrolled in school by the end of this year.