According to the Ministry of Work and Social Affairs, there are millions of Afghan children living without proper shelter. Many face domestic violence in their families.

According to official sources, there are over 6 million Afghan children living under poverty-line and with threats like food insecurity. Besides the fact that children have been the worst victims of the last four decades of conflict in Afghanistan, they are still the most vulnerable despite the significant improvements witnessed in the last ten years of international efforts in our country.

As a predominately rural country, when one imagines the plight of children, the focus has been on rural areas, while larger problems for Afghan children are in cities. For instances, in capital Kabul a large number of beggars are street children. According to a previous UNICEF report, there are more than 4000 children begging on the streets of Kabul. Afghan children live under extreme circumstances.

Child labor and sex abuse are another common misery. Three decades of war affected children the worst. An entire generation was deprived of education. About 300,000 children died during this period. Large number of children die each year due to malnutrition. One third of the landmine victims in Afghanistan are children.  Infant mortality rate is at worst. The situation is worsened with deplorable health condition, nutrition and food insecurity, lack of schools and physical violence.

And the bulk of all these problems are in cities. Sexual violence against children is very common. Child sex-abuse cases occur, but mostly go unreported. Mostly such cases are not reported and registered as a matter of honor of the family members of raped children.

Insecurity and poverty are the prime factors behind the problems such as child labor. We are witnessing a very slow pace in elimination of poverty and price hike. There are a considerable number of families headed by children—solely responsible for livelihood of the family.

The Government has not been doing satisfactorily enough to develop the deplorable condition of children with basic services such as education.