The decades of prevalent conflict and war in Afghanistan shambled everything, ranging from infrastructural to socio-political downfall; reasonless bloodshed followed by enormous people rendered physically impaired, counts to be ill consequences of those endless conflicts. Most often we see people with unpaired body part, sitting at the corner of streets haplessly ask for financial help from every passerby. This is the disappointing picture of neglected section of society, battered by negligence of leaving them unattended.
Afghanistan is a country with a population of about 29 million 50 percent of whom counted as the youth. The young people constitute a large force. They are energetic, enthusiastic and full of zeal. It is a great national wear and tear if these energetic hands and brains are left unemployed that inflict great losses to nation. This massive manpower can do wonders provided its enthusiasm is harnessed for development work. Afghanistan youth have never lagged behind when called upon to meet a challenge. Unfortunately a large number of them are without any direction. In addition the bad governance and meager services delivered by the incumbent government would increase their frustration –increasing the chances of their manipulation by anti-state elements. It is for the national leaders to play their part by mobilizing their abilities and providing them with a direction instead of letting them at the reach of extremist elements.
There can be a large number of schemes, projects and programs wherein their total involvement will bring quicker and better results. They can play a pivotal role in the socio-economic regeneration of the society. There are many evil practices in our society. If the youth is associated in a drive against these practices, the results may be much more satisfactory. There may be schemes connected with the raising of the level of production in agriculture. The youth may be assigned the job of dissemination of knowledge for better farming, new techniques and proper use of fertilizers and pesticides. What is required is that they may be given adequate training in these tasks. In a drive against economic offences, their energy may be used in molding public opinion in favor of eradication and prevention of such offences. The youth may work successfully as an arm of the administration in the implementation of governmental programs aimed at fighting against these and other maladies.
Another field wherein their energy may be gainfully employed is the task of adult education and universalisation of education. Being given a little dose of incentive, encouragement and support, they may take over the great responsibility of fulfilling the targets fixed by the government. However, for continuous success to take place; it is the Government’s responsibility to provide the youth with proper facilities for, getting equipped with the knowledge of the modern era.
It is right for the world and us to worry about the impact of Afghanistan’s dysfunctional educational system, especially when it has been demonstrated that poorly educated young men in a country as large as Afghanistan pose a serious security threat to the rest of the world. Millions of families, especially those with little money, send their children to religious schools or Madrasas. Many of these schools are the only opportunity available for an education, but some have been used as nurturing ground for violent extremism and terrorism. There is no doubt that Madrasas need to be reformed, but what is even more critical is the reform of public sector educational systems.
Child labor is an issue of growing concern in Afghanistan. Child labor includes working children who are below a certain minimum age. This practice is going on since long and is one of the worst forms of child exploitation. According to recent estimates, one in four Afghan children aged seven to 14 is engaged in some form of work. The data explores the factors that influence decision-making at the household level. The decision to send children to work is influenced by a combination of factors. Poverty is an obvious contextual factor that dominates the decision-making of all households in the study. In addition, household composition and gender norms affect the availability of labour resources, which can result in the need to send children to work.
Child labor victims in Afghanistan mostly work in illegal remote mines and other sources for at least 12 hours a day since mining a major source of income for poor families, they then force their children into it for money, food and other basic commodities. Child labor is most concentrated in Asia and Africa, which together account for more than 90 percent of total child employment. Though there are more child workers in Asia than anywhere else, a higher percentage of African children participate in the labor force.
Nevertheless, it did not help, instead the numbers seem to have grown in the last few years, and many of the beggars are women and children. The Afghanistan Human Rights Independent Commission (AHRIC) estimates there are 60,000 child addicts in the country. Opium is the most common drug sown and used in the street of the country unchecked. The addict children are used a tool to earn money for respective gangs. This is alarming figure narrating the grave human rights violation where children subjected ill-treatment under the very nose concerned departments.
Eliminating child labor is one of the biggest challenges that the whole world is facing now. Child labor not only causes damage to a child’s physical and mental health but also keep him deprive of his basic rights to education, development and freedom. Learning of aforementioned statistics, the government of Afghanistan must take immediate steps for alleviating the child labor on war footing. The government is awaited to devise implementable plan that could assists ridding out of calamities of problems.