At least 2 million Afghan children are likely to be involved in paid work
1.5 million Afghan children serve as the breadwinner for their family
47 % of the labor force in Afghanistan’ s brick-kiln industry is under age 14
About one-half of Afghanistan’ s 24 million people are under age 18
Faisal, 12, works in a hardware store for six hours a day, seven days a week after school.“ With money I buy bread and food for my family,” he says.
Sources: United Nations agencies, International Labor Organization, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. Index Mundi, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, and U. S. Department of Labor dren trafficked for work in agriculture, domestic labor and commercial sexual exploitation. And they do not capture the costs of a lost childhood or the long-term consequences of an education foregone.”
Faisal, a 12-year-old orphan in Kabul, Afghanistan, sees education as his way out.“ If [ we ] get education, we will improve our future and head off this bad life,” he said.
The youngest of eight children, he lives with his older brother and sister at an uncle’ s house in Kabul. Their father died seven years ago of heart problems; three years later their mother died“ of another disease,” he said.
He attends school every day until 12.30 p. m. Then he walks about a half-mile to a hardware store in the nearby bazaar. He works from 1 to 7 p. m. seven days a week and is paid 100 afghanis($ 2) a day. He has had this job since he was 8 years old.
“ With the money I buy bread and food for my family,” he said.“ My brother brings other things.”
His older brother also works. His 20-yearold sister“ is not married and lives with us and takes care of us.”
Work at the hardware store“ is not difficult, there’ s no heavy lifting,” Faisal said.“ Mostly I just collect what people need and put in bags or prepare it for taking.”
But his boss has a short temper, he said.
“ When I’ m confused and I don’ t know what to do, then he becomes angry with me and sometimes he beats me.”
Although he spends long hours at the shop each day, Faisal works hard to stay on top of schoolwork. Now in fourth grade, his midyear exam scores moved him from ninth to third position in his class, said Fazullah, one of the boy’ s teachers.“ He studies very hard.”
Quality education lies at the heart of eradicating the worst forms of child labor.
Think back to Europe and the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when“ the introduction and expansion of free and compulsory public education provided a catalyst for the eradication of child labor,” Brown wrote. Compulsory education was a“ lever” for lifting children out of work and into school.
That can happen again. Just a single role model can create a ripple effect.
Mortenson believes it is young people who can, and will, make a difference.
“ We need to create more awareness of the exploitation of kids around the world, especially among the youth,” Mortenson said.“ They can develop a collective consciousness of the global issues affecting children and motivate adults and policymakers to take action to reduce the severity and explosion of child labor and slavery.” y
Central Asia Institute joined the world in celebrating the October award of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize to child-labor opponent Kailash Satyart hi and girls’ education advocate Malala Yousafzai.
They shared the award for their“ struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education,” according to the Nobel committee’ s website.
For CAI the award has particular resonance because it reaffirms the role of education in fighting child slavery.
“ Children must go to school and not be financially exploited,” the Nobel committee said.“ In the poor countries of the world, 60 percent of the present population is under 25 years of age. It is a prerequisite for peaceful global development that the rights of children and young people be respected. In conflict-ridden areas in particular, the violation of children leads to the continuation of violence from generation to generation.” n
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