Activists for children’s rights say that with the increase in the number of child workers, not only the education of children will be affected, but they will also be abused in the workplace and markets. All of this will have a bad effect on the society.
Naseer Kotwal, an economic affairs expert based in Afghanistan, told The The Friday Times that in the current situation of the country when aid agencies do not reach the people, families are forced to send their children to work in order to earn for food.
He added, “The target group of these humanitarian aid is women and children, and when women are not employed, their children, whether they are boys or girls, cannot be reached and the aid that is allocated to them is not for them will not improve their lives. this situation would forced them to work”.
Last year, on December 24 2022, the Taliban banned women and girls from working in non-governmental organisations.
The report by Save The Children went on to mention that the Taliban imposed this ban at a time when Afghanistan is facing an economic and food crisis and 28 million children in the country are in need of huge humanitarian aid.
According to the report, a recent survey shows that in 2022, 29 percent of females who are heads of households send at least one of their children to work, compared to 19 percent in 2021.
Farid Abdul Rahim, a children’s rights activist based in Afghanistan, spoke about how some of the children who are engaged in earning money instead of getting an education are abused. According to him, “these children who should go to school now, they are doing work, so it has a bad effect on their future. Some of these children are abused by terrorist groups and mafia groups, and similar cases are repeated in Afghanistan. It is very common that negative benefits have been taken from these children and even these children have been smuggled out of the country and then sexually exploited.”
Marks Potzel, Deputy Director of the United Nations Political Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) yesterday, on Sunday, met with the Minister of Peace and Prohibition of the ruling Taliban, Muhammad Khalid Hanafi, and discussed the education of Afghan women and aid agencies. They have asked him to end the restrictions on work as soon as possible.