KABUL (SW): Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), in its recent report, “The child labor in Afghanistan and its consequences”, stated that more than 90% of children have worked more than 35 hours per week, 60% worked more than 7 hours a day, and about 10% of them have worked mornings to mid-nights.
The report had been prepared by conducting 657 questionnaires and 53 meetings with provincial council members, representatives of Independent Directorate of Local Governance, experts, university professors, scholars and elders from all provinces.
The children who have participated in this survey were 92.5% boys, 0.8% married and 98% single. 3 percent of these children were disabled and 3 percent have been living away from their families.
According to AIHRC’s report, the average number of family members for the working children has been 9 persons which have been the main reason for children to work as child laborers.
The findings showed that about 50 percent of children have been working as shopkeepers, shoe repairers, welders and as mechanics of cars, though, 10.5 percent have been working in waste management, garbage collection, and as street sellers and street beggars.
Sima Samar, director of AIHRC at a press conference for presenting this report said that 56 percent of these children have been satisfied with their work and 43 percent have been unsatisfied. 42 percent of them have been satisfied with their work due to vocational training programs for them while 49 percent of them have been satisfied due to income from their jobs.
According to Sima Samar, 84 percent of these working children have received salary and 81 percent of them have paid their wages to their families. Of these, 13% have been working to gain professional skills, 35.6% were working at others home as servants, 21% have been working to pay off their families debts, 12.6% of them have been working in exchange for food for themselves.
The report showed that 56 percent of these children have been deprived of education. 61 percent of them have been working in non-healthy environment, and 32 percent of them have experienced work-related injuries.
The AIHRC report has also mentioned that 59 percent of these children have been provided 3 meals a day while 39 percent of them have had only one or two meals per day.
According to the report, 40 percent of these children have been threatened or verbally abused during their work, while 33 percent of them have been beaten up by their employers, 39 percent have been humiliated and insulted on their jobs. The report also showed that 16 of child laborers were sexually abused, with 43% of them being physically touched.
According to AIHRC, 75.5 percent reason for child labor is reported to be economic hardship or poverty. Insecurity, natural incidents, families’ lack of awareness of children’s rights, addictions of parents, and lack of care for children are among the other factors forcing children to work as child laborers.
In the section on consequences of child labor; the physical consequences (skin diseases, short-term memory loss, speech problems, organ defects, height reduction, weight loss), psychological consequences (tendency of jealousy, instability, restlessness, depression, fear, pessimism and negativity), and social consequences (exclusion from recreational activities, deprivation from the family time) have been reported as major consequences of the child labor.
At the end of this report, the AIHRC has asked the relevant institutions to codify children’s laws and amend them according to conditions of the time.
AIHRC has recognized the war and insecurity as a major cause for child labors in this report and has called on the government to bring peace. Among other AIHRC's recommendations for the government, AIHRC suggested to make secondary education compulsory for children, and support the poor children to get an education.
ENDS
