they would send their children to school if it led to “ increased potential for stable , highpaid employment in the future .” But , given Afghanistan ’ s high unemployment rates , parents doubt education will result in “ greater job prospects for their children .”
In other cases , families are so stretched just trying to keep everyone alive that they don ’ t even consider school .
“ I want to study and become a doctor but we don ’ t have any money ,” Nabeel Mukhtar told Reuters news agency in 2012 . At the age of 6 , the boy was forced to work nine hours a day , six days a week to help his family . His father had a job as a barber , but only earned $ 83 a month , not enough to support the family , which also included a younger brother and sister .
“ From the bottom of my heart , I want to send my son to school but we have so many expenses ,” said Mukhtar ’ s mother , Shazia . “ We struggle to put food on our table .”
His father was less sympathetic . “ He ’ s learning to work and he also earns around 300-400 rupees . So what ’ s wrong in that ? We are poor .”
In Tajikistan ’ s rural and mountainous Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast , children are commonly seen on the roadside selling fresh and dried fruit , recycled plastic soda bottles filled with honey , or bags of nuts to supplement their families ’ meager incomes . Children work in the fields on family farms . And they work in the bazaars , in mines and on construction projects .
The Tajik government actually enforces its compulsory education laws and nearly all the children attend school , according to UNICEF . Nevertheless , an estimated 200,000 Tajik children between 5 and 14 years old are also involved in child labor — about 7 percent of the under-18 population — and that number is growing , according to the International Labor Organization .
The reasons are varied “ Some children have been abandoned by their parents or relatives , or their parents have died ,” according to a 2013 UNICEF study .
Others are drawn out of school and into the workforce when male family members go to work in Russia and abandon their families back home , the ILO reported . “ Non-return of their parents , mainly fathers , leads to family breakdown , increase of child labor , sending children to special institutions , neglect , violence , abuse , and exploitation of children .”
About 80 percent of working children “ come from a one-parent family or from a family where the father is a migrant worker ,” ILO coordinator Muhayo Khosabekova said .
They carry heavy loads of everything from household goods and gemstones to small arms and drugs across the border .
For 12-year-old Safar , both migrantworker father and poor quality schools determined his fate . He is the village herder , taking all 160 households ’ cattle to the mountain pastures each day , according to the ILO report . He ’ s gone at least 10 hours a day . But he ’ s glad to have a job that keeps him close to home , and to help support his family . “ Without my salary we will simply not survive ,” he said .
As for school , his mother told the ILO , “ Our school is small and understaffed , and
A boy works on a car engine in an auto mechanic ’ s shop in Ishkashim , Afghanistan .
Of the 58 million children age 6 to 11 out of school around the world , most live in conflict zones
Upwards of 215 million children are thought to be involved in child labor ; 115 million of those children are involved in “ hazardous occupations ”
Pakistan has the second-largest out-of-school population in the world at 7.3 million , including 4.2 million girls
12 million children ages 5 to 14 are working in Pakistan
Pakistan ’ s government has not done a child labor survey since 1996 , 18 years ago
Human trafficking : In some of the regions where CAI works , children are trafficked for profit . They are kidnapped and then rented or sold for work in agriculture , domestic service , prostitution or begging , according to the DOL . Girls sold into forced marriages are trafficked internationally for prostitution . Disabled children are sold or kidnapped and taken to countries such as Iran , where they are forced to beg and turn all money over to their owners .
Child soldiers : Various international groups have documented “ non-state militant groups ” in Pakistan and Afghanistan recruiting children as soldiers and then trafficking them across the border . Some of the kids are kidnapped . In other cases , parents are coerced in giving or selling their children to spy , fight or die in suicide attacks , according to DOL . These children , some as young as 10 or 11 years old , are subjected to physical , sexual and psychological abuse .
Illegal work : Children along the border with Afghanistan are used in illegal smuggling operations . They carry heavy loads of everything from household goods and gemstones to small arms and drugs across the border .
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