Child workers in Khost brick kilns face uncertain future

KHOST (Pajhwok): A number of child workers gather every morning before sunrise in the Gurbuz district of southeastern Khost province to go to work in brick kilns.

Deprived of education and childhood games; these children with small hands, tired faces and despair in their eyes reveal stories of poverty and a weary life.

In the Alidayi area of Gurbuz district, Habib Gul works in a brick kiln all day long under the fire-emitting sun and goes back home exhausted in the evening.

Gul says his life has been so difficult that he could not attend school or provide his children with an education.

He told a Pajhwok Afghan News reporter he would have sent his children to school or seminary if he had the ability to do so. “My children will meet my fate.”

Habib Gul is not the only person facing such hardships of life, but there are thousands of families who are experiencing poverty and helplessness.

The brick kiln is the only hope for survival for many other children and their families, along with Habib Gul’s sons.

Similarly, a child worker, Shahzaman, told Pajhwok: “We have been working in this factory for four years. We just work. We have no education. We are trapped in it. We want the government to send us to school and find us easy jobs.”

Another young boy named Zahidullah, who was busy filling brick molds and sweat dripping from his forehead due to the intense heat, said briefly that he had left school and was working here.

He added: “I make bricks, I have never been to school.”

Local officials say not only in Khost city, but in various districts of the province, thousands of children are engaged in heavy work.

Mustaghfar Gurbaz, a spokesman for the Khost governor, told Pajhwok Afghan News that around 3,500 children were engaged in heavy work in various districts of the province and efforts were being made to provide these children with facilities in the areas of education and vocational training.

He added: “We have a kindergarten in Khost where dozens of children are being educated, and there is also a vocational training center under the framework of the Department of Labor and Social Affairs, from which hundreds of people have graduated and are undergoing training, so that they can earn a healthy living for their families and be saved from heavy work.”

It is worth noting that not only in Khost, children do heavy work in brick kilns, but this problem persists at the national level.

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