Involved in labor works, Kabul children seek education

KABUL (Pajhwok): A number of children involved in labor works in capital Kabul urge the authorities to provide them with education.

More than four decades of war in Afghanistan pushed millions of people into poverty and severe economic hardships and many children have also been forced into hard labor to meet their families’ expenses.

Amin,9, is one of dozens of children in Kabul, who instead of going to school, has to work on the streets of Kabul to earn a living for his family.

Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, Amin said that due to economic problems, he could not go to school and he had to help his father meet the expenses of their family of seven.

His father owns a handcart in Mandawi bazaar of Kabul city and earns a meager amount by transporting people’s goods.

Amin polishes people’s shoes every day from morning to evening on a sidewalk in Kabul city.

He said: “I earn 10 to 50 afghanis by polishing people’s shoes on a daily basis and I only can purchase a few breads.”

Like other children, he also wishes to study in order to have a good future and get rid of the labor work, but his life’s problems are not allowing him to pursue his ambitions.

Amin, who cannot read and write, said: “I hope that one day will come when I will no longer work and instead go to school and have a good future.”

Mohammad Noor, 12, is another child laborer, who collects cans of soft drinks and bottles from streets of Kabul from dawn to dusk and sells them.

Noor, while collecting empty cans of soft drinks in 3^rdMakroryan, said: “There are 10 members in our family, my father died a few years ago due to illnesses and I’m the sole breadwinner for the family, my brothers are small.”

According to him, some days, depending on luck, he collects many cans and returns home happy, but some days he cannot find anything to sell.

He said that in the month of Ramadan, he was trying to collect more bottles to get more money from their sale to take some food for his mother and a sister who were fasting and break their fast.

Mohammad Noor said: "If my father was alive, I would not have to work and I would go to school and study instead of wandering around looking for bottles and cans."

He wants the government to provide education and learning opportunities for him and other children like him.

Nine-year-old Zahra runs around with old clothes and cracked hands to sell plastic goods to people in the streets.

Her father is paralyzed and unable to work, she is forced to sell plastic bags on the streets of the city to meet the expenses of her family of seven with her 15-year-old brother.

She says: "My father is paralyzed and cannot work, that's why me and my older brother are working to find money for my father's medicine."

The daily income of Zahra and her brother reaches about 150 Afghanis.

She urged the government and other aid organizations to help poor families so that their children could continue their studies and be saved from an unknown future.

Mohammad Yunus Siddiqui, the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, without giving details about the request of the children, said the ministry has a program to collect children engaged in hard labor and provide them with education.

He added that in the last two years, 13,392 child workers and beggars have been collected from Kabul city, of which 4,621 have been identified as eligible to be helped and 71 others have been referred to orphanages due to lack of guardians.

sa/ma