Human Trafficking in [Afghanistan] [other countries]Street Children in [Afghanistan Child Prostitution in [Afghanistan] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children Afghanistan [ Country-by-Country
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Big Picture U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children are also found working in the urban informal sector
engaged in activities such as shining shoes, begging, or rummaging for scrap
metal in the streets. Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2006 SECTION 6
WORKER RIGHTS – [d]
The law recognizes the standard legal age for work as 15, but there are provisions
for 13 and 14-year-olds to work as apprentices, provided they only work 35
hours per week. Children under 13 may not work under any circumstances. There
was, however, no evidence that authorities in any part of the country
enforced labor laws relating to the employment of children. In 2005 UNICEF
reported there was an estimated one million child laborers under the age of
14 in the country. UNICEF estimate, at least 20 percent of primary school age
children undertake some form of work. An AIHRC report
released this year estimated that most child laborers worked as street
vendors (13 percent) or shop keepers (21 percent). Other common forms of
labor were workshop hands, blacksmiths, farming, auto repair and tailoring.
In cities, a larger proportion of child laborers were involved in collecting
paper, scrap metal, and firewood; shining shoes; and begging. Some of these
practices exposed children to the danger of landmines. Eighty-six percent of
child laborers were boys, and 14 percent were girls. While no statistics exist,
children under 18 have been arrested for drug trafficking related charges. AIHRC reported that in Kabul there were about 60,000
child laborers, the majority of whom migrated to the city from other
provinces. Many of them worked under unscrupulous employers who subjected the
children to sexual exploitation and forced labor. UNHCR
reported that many children worked on the streets of Kabul, Jalalabad, and Mazar-i-Sharif
with numbers increasing. The child labor force was predominantly boys aged
8-14 with a smaller number of girls 8-10 years old. Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 SOCIETAL ABUSES AND DISCRIMINATION
- Non-Muslims faced
discrimination in schools. The AIHRC received
numerous reports that students belonging to the Sikh and Hindu faiths stopped
attending schools due to harassment from both teachers and students, and the
government had not implemented measures to protect these children. CHILDREN – The law makes education up to
the intermediate level mandatory, and provides for free education up to the
college, or bachelor's degree level. Local authorities made some progress in
school attendance. A back-to-school campaign launched by the Ministry of
Education increased school enrollment from 4.2 million children in 2003 to
over 5.2 million during the year. Since 2002 the number of girls
attending school increased by over 30 percent; however, an estimated 1.5 million
school-age girls were not enrolled in classes. Some provinces had no schools
for girls to attend, and in Speaker
opens window on life in Afghanistan The landscape and the people are
diverse, confusing, beautiful and controversial," Isaac said of
Afghanistan. "There are year-round snow-capped mountains, endless rock
forges and amazing canyons. There are open-air schools being run in
bombed-out buildings, potato fields surrounded by people living in tents,
mountainous foothills strewn with abandoned tanks, and suffering cities full
of street children. That's what it's like. Kabul’s
beggar children working the streets “I was selling eggs. I fell over.
My eggs smashed,” the five-year-old whimpers quietly. “I’ve lost 50 afghanis (one dollar), my mother will kill me.” Each day Shakir
invests the equivalent of a dollar to buy eggs that he drops on a dirty footpath.
He then sits miserably in front of them and tells his story in the hope of
attracting donations. Shakir’s trick reflects the competitive
world of child beggars in Kabul, a city clogged by a population of around
four million people that exploded after the 2001 fall of the Taliban regime
led exiles home and jobseekers to the capital. According to surveys by the UN
children’s organisation, UNICEF, there are 50,000
to 60,000 street children in Kabul, said the UN Afghanistan spokesman Aleem Siddique. Teaching
Kabul's street children "Don't you recognise me," he asked? "I was one of your
students at Aschiana. Now I am finishing my
studies, learning computers and earning money. I am not a beggar any
more." The Aschiana
project in Kabul helps less than one in ten of the city's street children.
But it does offer those there something they can't
find anywhere else. When they finish class
they may go back to begging to support their families, but they do so knowing
that tomorrow will bring more knowledge and with it perhaps a way out. Children
work the streets to support families Ahmad Wali,
9, is combing the rubbish dump for soda cans to sell as a way to support his
11-member family in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Thousands of children work the
streets to help their households through the harsh winter. "I have to work hard as my
father lost his job and it has become very difficult for us to get by and pay
the monthly rent for our house," he explained. Afghan
street children finding way out of poverty through job training programs Fawad's mornings are spent selling apples
or red pomegranates, which can net him up to $8 (€6.22) a day. His afternoons are dedicated to his
future. That's when the teenager
studies carpentry at a vocational training center sponsored by the Social
Affairs Ministry. Fawad is one of 37,000 young
Afghans taking part in some kind of job education across the country, said
Mohammad Ghous Bashiri, a
deputy minister. Some working children say they
also cannot take time to go to the training centers. "My father is
dead," Ahmed Shafiq, 13, said while selling
plastic bags on a crowded street. "And I have my mother and three
sisters I have to support." Afghanistan:
Daily Survival Robs Street Children Of Education WORKING TO GET BY - The United Nations says that
more than 60,000 school-aged children now work on the streets of Kabul to
survive. Some beg. Others polish and mend shoes. Still others sell plastic
bottles of water, chewing gum, or newspapers. Nassrullah is a 7-year-old boy who burns
small bits of coal in a tin can at a Kabul park in the belief that the smoke
will protect people from curses and bring them good luck. In return, some
people give Nassrullah a small amount of money. But
others simply turn away, annoyed at the smell of the smoke. "I make 100 to 150 afghanis (around $2-$3) in a day," Nassrullah says. "Half of that I give to my father.
The rest I give to my mother. My father is unable to work, so I am obliged to
do this. I also buy bread for them. I leave home every day at 7:00 or 8:00 in
the morning to do this. Street
Children on the Rise in Kabul Take a walk through the crowded
markets of Kabul and you can see them everywhere: young school age boys and
girls selling plastic bags, bottled water, and other merchandise.
Street children, like 12 year-old Madena --
originally from the northern city of Mazar Shariff. "My father was killed in the war and
now I am working here," she says.
According to United Nations statistics, more than 60,000 children now
work in the streets of Kabul to survive. Afghanistan,
Then and Now : A Discussion With Anne Brodsky SV - What's the situation for children? Are they able
to go to school or do they have to work? AB - You certainly see alot
of child labor. You see them on the streets of Kabul, in Herat. I was working
with this organization called 'Voice of Women Organization’ and they were
putting in a grant to try to get some projects for Herat street children and
the project wasn't totally to take them out of work because they needed to be
able to work to help their family to survive but it was to provide them with
education half time and try to provide some field training so that they could
get better jobs, safer jobs. It's true that the schools reopened, which is a
wonderful advancement over the Taliban, but if you actually look at the
numbers there may be 5 million children back to school but the numbers of
children in Afghanistan is more than 15 million. AFGHANISTAN:
Children fly kites for peace as world marks international peace day ASIA IRIN-AS WEEKLY ROUND-UP 90 16
- 22 SEPTEMBER 2006 -
As Afghanistan struggles to consolidate its hard-won peace following nearly
three decades of brutal civil war and internal strife, young boys and girls
in the country's capital expressed hopes for a brighter future at a hilltop
ceremony on Thursday, with the children flying kites and balloons inscribed
with personal messages of peace. Over 50 children from Ashiana,
a local school for orphans and street children in Kabul, participated in the
event organised by the United Nations Assistance
Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to mark the
International Day of Peace (21 September). Mill
Valley educator heads back to Afghanistant to teach "Students wanted to do
homework, even the street children," she said, explaining that these
children are mostly of parents who cannot work because of injuries suffered
during the various conflicts that have crippled the country for so long. Spike
in violence could herald imminent Afghan success The school is actually one of six
that carry the Aschiana name, meaning
"nest." Those schools serve a total of 3,000 students plucked off
the streets by outreach workers, said Sigrid de Jong,
the acting director at the school. "Our vocational training
takes in students up to 28 years old," said de Jong,
an Australian volunteer. "Students here study computers, welding,
plumbing, sewing, embroidery, hygiene, reading and writing, music, art and
even photography. We figure if we can give them a few skills we can get these
kids off the street." Focus on Kabul
street children Unable to provide food for her six
young children, Ehsan's mother sent him and his
brother into the streets of The
Brave Children Of Afghanistan The street children are sheltering
from the chill - huddling in doorways. One boy I often see charging around near
the BBC office covers his head with his ragged and blackened jacket to give
himself some relief from the cold.
There are numerous children who wait outside the door of the office
hoping for some work. Most of them are shoeshine boys. They all have similar tales - a father dead
either from the war or illness, numerous brothers and sisters, and a family
dependent on their meager earnings for their daily bread. Poverty
forces children to quit school to work While millions of Afghan children
have returned to school following the collapse of the Taliban regime in late
2001, tens of thousands of school-age youngsters, restricted by economic hardship,
must still work on the streets of the Afghan capital, Behind the
Clouds: A New Hope for Afghanistan The problem of street children in UN
Envoy Urges Major Investment in Children and Youth of Afghanistan · 1 out of every 3 children (over 1
million children) have lost one or both parents · 20% of children die before their
first birthday, mostly from preventable diseases · 50% of children suffer from
chronic malnutrition · About half the 200,000 landmine
victims are children · An estimated 2 million children
were uprooted by war · 50,000 street children in In the streets of Kabul
street children to benefit from new partnership with UNICEF Nearly 1,000 street working
children in the Afghan capital of Real lives
- Afghanistan’s former child soldiers are eager to embrace the future [Photo Caption] With UNICEF
support, the NGO “Solidarité Afghanistan Belgium” (SAB) is running a successful program for 500 former child
soldiers and street children. These boys are learning to become electrical
technicians. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC §
107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use |
Human Trafficking in [Afghanistan] [other countries]Street Children in [Afghanistan Child Prostitution in [Afghanistan] [other countries]