There is no limit to suffering: Afghanistan has experienced a series of natural disasters and economic crises since the Taliban took over the country in 2021 that brought large parts of the country's already poor population to the brink of starvation. A series of recent studies show that those who bear the brunt of suffering are the children of Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban came to power, about a million children have joined the workforce, most of them working hard, despicable and dangerous jobs. According to a 2022 UN survey, about one-fifth of families in the country have had to send at least one child to work, with single-parent families, the country's largest after 20 years of war, disproportionately affected.
A boy collects garbage for recycling on the streets of Kabul, Photo: AFP
Sami, a 13-year-old boy, was sent to work when his father died about a year ago. "I'm only 13 years old, and we're a family of six. There's no way we'll be able to meet expenses when I'm just working. We need help," he tells Azadi radio. Sami and his friends wander around Kabul's landfills looking for plastics and metals to sell for recycling. "On a good day, I make something like fifty cents," he says desperately. Experts estimate that thousands of children in Kabul work in jobs similar to Sami's.
The Taliban's restrictions on women's work mean many families have lost one breadwinner and as prices rise due to inflation and the war in Ukraine, essentials like food have become unattainable without the help of charities.
Children working in agriculture in Afghanistan,
Khibbullah owns a garage in Bamiyan province in the center of the country. He says parents desperate to feed their families beg him to take their children to work. "Every day, parents come and ask me if I can take one of their children as an apprentice. The economic situation forces parents to sacrifice their children's education and send them to work," the owner told the radio station.
For the few social workers who still manage to work in the country, the challenge is unimaginable. The small welfare system maintained by the previous democratic government collapsed completely and the welfare system was transferred to the heads of the provinces. "It's the government's job to protect children from a life of hard labor," Mia Jan Rasih, a social worker in Bamiyan County, told the media-in-exile.
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