. Children in many parts of the world are exposed to the cruelest face of modern slavery; Among them are forced labor, forced marriage and human trafficking.
According to Roidadha News Agency of Afghanistan, quoting from Anatoly, there are more than 160 million working children between the ages of 5 and 17, 80 million of whom work in very dangerous conditions. According to a human rights activist, there are clear signs that the number of child laborers has greatly increased after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. In the past years, there were 3.7 million child laborers in Afghanistan, of which 2.1 million were engaged in hard labor. Human rights activists say that child laborers are likely to fall into the trap of mafia groups. According to him, hard work deprives children of the right to education and causes an increase in crimes and social norms, including addiction. A number of working children in the city of Kabul who are struggling with poverty and hard life, these children want the Taliban-led government to support them and provide them with suitable educational and job opportunities. Hashmatullah a eight-year-old is the head of his family of six people. He is carter and saling fruit saler in market in Kabul. Hashmat’s wounded hands tell the heaviness of the work he is carrying at such a young age. Hashmat should now be busy with education in the fourth grade at school, but his eyes are in the fruit market looking for fruits that he can bring to his destination and buy bread for his father, mother, sisters and brothers with the money. Heshmat says: “I have been running to Karachi for a year to bring home a piece of dry bread.” My father was a soldier and in one of the suicide attacks in the area of the Ministry of Interior, he was disabled and lost one of his legs. He is no longer able to work. The government no longer pays any salary for him. I have to work and bring home bread. They ask the Taliban leader to provide them with training and help because the working children are facing a bad mental and emotional condition and most of them have had to stop studying. Wahid is one of the other child laborers in Kabul. He says that with an income of 100 to 250 Afghani a day, he has to cover all the expenses of the family. Wahid’s watery eyes and aching heart melt a person’s heart. His only wish is to go to school, become a doctor in the future and help all children. Vahid says: I come every morning and work here until the evening. But when I see my peers leaving school, I feel very sad because life has forced me so much that I can no longer go to school. At the same time, according to psychologists, working on the roads has many negative effects on the spirit and psyche of working children. Kamal Jalal, mental health doctor, speaking to Roidadha News, said: “Children who work on the road lose the ability to manage their lives, they stop learning, and they have a negative impact on their future, their families and their children”. According to Dr. Jalal, if working children achieve a good position in the future, their personality is still psychologically incomplete; They will never have the opportunity to complete the lost personality of their childhood and may sometimes experience crisis or violence. This is despite the fact that the probability of these children reaching a complete and positive personality is very small. Dr. Jalal added: “These children may be able to live well in the future”. Unfortunately, the rest will not be able to make a good life for themselves in the future, and psychological problems, feelings of inferiority, complex and hatred will be found in their existence, and they will come in complex form, which will have a negative impact on both the family and the society. However, organizations and institutions supporting children’s rights say that the increase in unemployment in society and poverty in families has forced more children to do hard work. Unemployment, the existence of poverty and families becoming homeless have increased compared to previous years.According to them, child labor is prohibited according to the country’s constitution. In one of the articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it is stated that the child’s right should be protected against any work that is difficult or interferes with his education or harms his physical, mental, spiritual, spiritual or social development. It is also stated in the forty-ninth article of the Afghan constitution that imposing work on children is not allowed. However, in Afghanistan, there are many children who are less than eighteen years old, but because of poverty and lack of resources, they are engaged in hard and difficult work. Eight-year-old Malina, a resident of De-Afghanan in Kabul, sells Bolani from sunrise to sunset on the dusty roads of Kabul and in Shahr i Naw in all seasons of the year, withstanding the cold and heat. He sells Bolani, which is prepared by his sick mother and his younger sister on the night. In the morning, Malina takes 20 grains of Bolani and walks in the streets of Kabul until night in Shahr i Naw Mir Park. She is the breadwinner of the family. Malina says: “Sometimes I sell bolani and sometimes plastic; I earn one hundred or one hundred twenty afghanis daily, which is the only money for our dry bread. My mother has been sick for eight months and is unable to work. We lost my father two years ago in a suicide attack. After my father’s death, my mother used to wash goods in people’s houses; But when he got sick, I have to work.” Malina does not go to school; But she regretfully said several times that she would like to go to school; And the driver becomes a journalist, but he cannot; because she has to work. In addition, he does not have the money to buy books, pens, and clothes. She says that when school girls buy bolani from me, I feel disappointed because I can not go to school. Zainab is has 5 years, every morning she comes from Karte Naw to Shahr Naw Park, and it is inevitable that she collects bottles from the roads and sells them, and in this way, she can provide for the family’s expenses. also find Zainab says, “every day, my child, who is older than me, hurts me, and the bottles take me away from me, and I can’t help but cry and scream”. These children are asking the international community and the Islamic Emirate to support and cooperate with poor families.
The number of child laborers is increasing in the country, while the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has not conducted any survey in this field during the past year and with the capture of Kabul by the Taliban. Accurate records are within the reach of this ministry. However, Mohammad Yunus Siddiqi, the spokesman of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of the Taliban government said: “The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs did not conduct any survey in the field of child laborers during the last year to have accurate figures on child laborers, but the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs Those children who are engaged in hard work on the street decided to keep them in the child support center and to transfer the children who are underage and without a guardian to the school and keep them there, and the children who need technical education or They have a profession to make the environment favorable for them so that they can become a source of service to the family and the country. With the Taliban’s dominance over Afghanistan, poverty and hunger have spread in the country. It is said that 24.4 million people in the country are facing severe food insecurity and need humanitarian assistance and support. The majority of working children in Afghanistan are engaged in hard work in the cities and on the roads. The long war, migration, low level of economic knowledge, social and cultural backwardness and lack of access to proper life facilities have forced a number of poor families to force their children to do hard work in order to prepare a morsel of bread for them to survive, and most of these children do not have a guardian in their family or their father is disabled, forcing them to do hard work. Today’s children are tomorrow’s future builders. When they grow up in inappropriate environments and live with all kinds of mental and emotional problems, they will not have a good future. The government should have detailed and specific plans to improve the living conditions of children and their families, and try to save children from problems. Physically and mentally liberating.
Reporter: Meena Habib
