High rates of unemployment and poverty among a population growing at the rate of 2 percent should be worrying the government. Killid’s Nasir Behzad investigates.
High rates of unemployment and poverty among a population growing at the rate of 2 percent should be worrying the government. Killid’s Nasir Behzad investigates.Assuming that an Afghan woman will have at least five children in her lifetime, the Central Statistics Organisation (CSO) has calculated the country’s population to be 27 million. CSO head Abdul Rahman Ghafoori has warned of an impending social crisis if the government cannot find jobs for people.
However, government ministries, instead of tackling the enormous challenge of job creation, are seeking to put the blame elsewhere. The CSO has been blamed for not giving accurate population figures for the purposes of government planning.
The CSO has estimated more than half the people are very poor. Speaking to Killid, Ghafoori said a survey conducted three years back had revealed, “36 percent of the population was living under the line of poverty and 20 percent was at risk of going under the poverty line in case of even the smallest financial setback.”
Economist Aziz Rasouli who has researched the subject has concluded poverty in Afghan villages is far worse than in the cities. “The number of jobless people is many times more than the official figures presented,” he said.
The last official population census in Afghanistan was in 1979 – but it was not completed because of security problems. The estimate by CSO also includes the country’s nomadic population, but these figures may be a gross underestimation in the absence of a scientific survey.
Minister of Public Health Suraya Dalil expressing concern about the state of health services had said in a press conference on Nov 18 last year that the population could climb to 49 million by 2035.
Mostly jobless
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has warned many Afghans are not in stable jobs. At best most people were on temporary and seasonal jobs, which meant they were jobless for parts of the year. Economist Rasouli has confirmed the position. “There are millions who don’t have even temporary jobs,” he said.
Balkh MP (member of parliament) Sayed Alemi Balkhi believes the government may be preparing the ground for a serious crisis. “The problem of joblessness not only annoys the young, it upsets all communities, and needs the serious attention of the Afghan government,” he told Killid.
The spokesman in the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Ali Eftekhari, said more jobs would be created as a result of partnerships between the government and the private sector. He said 100,000 graduates from vocational centres that were set up with his ministry’s support have found jobs.
Eftekhari acknowledged that unemployment was a serious problem, and has led to migration from rural to urban areas. Passing on the responsibility, he said the failure to build up a manufacturing sector and harvest benefits from the country’s ample natural resources have led to the growth of joblessness.
Union leader Maroof Qaderi blamed the government for not creating jobs. “The conditions of work are (also) not acceptable,” he said.
Afghanistan’s educated, unemployed are very frustrated. Hasan, 25, a graduate from Ghazni, said: “I knocked on many doors in government offices for months but due to not having work experience, I have not found a job.”
Giving vent to his frustration, he burst out, “This is cruelty that educated people are going to Pakistan or Iran to work as ordinary labour.” Work should be provided in Afghanistan, he demanded. “I have studied 16 years but I am jobless – either I find work as ordinary labour or I sit jobless,” he said.
Unkept promises
Hasan is scathing about the role of the international community. “If the international community really wants to help Afghanistan, factories should be established, the industry should develop – the problems would surely have been solved. But the international community did not want to really help Afghanistan because Afghanistan could have become self-sufficient and there would be no need for expatriates,” he said.
People blame a serious drug addiction problem, depression, and restlessness among the youth to the lack of opportunities.
Day after day Faiz Mohammad, a daily wage worker, has spent the morning at Koti Sangi Square futilely waiting for work. Workers stand at the square in the hope of being hired. “The government should provide work,” he said. “We don’t want the government to appoint us as ministers. We want work so we can live. Factories must be established,” he added.
A constant stream of new migrants from the countryside adds to Kabul’s population every year. People are abandoning villages because of a persisting drought in some parts of the country, the failure of agriculture, and growing insecurity.
The Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Services Commission said the government employs 370,000 people. An additional 6,000 who have passed the qualifying exam are waiting to be absorbed in government jobs.
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is one of the largest employers, providing work to up to 400,000 people. Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amirzai Sangin pointed out to Killid that “as well as the people that are working in the ministry and departments, many thousands are working in delivering as service providers for internet, and selling communication instruments.”
However, millions of more jobs need to be created to meet the needs of the masses of unemployed.
