Problems of road side worker children in Afghanistan

The work by the children is one of the big worrying issues in Afghanistan as the last estimations shows that one of four children between age 7-14 are busy on working.

The convention of low age of International Labor Organization shows that the work by children has been defined based on their age as the mentioned convention has specified the less age 18 years for heavy works and 15 years for light work though article number 32 of Children Rights Convention of UN sates that the children must be kept safe from any activity that affect badly the education and mental, spiritual, ethical and social development of them.

But Afghanistan has accepted 18 years age for heavy works and 15 years for light works.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) has defined in its convention of year 1369 the  armed conflicts, prostitution, smuggling of narcotics, appointing of the children for work without considering their ages as the worst type of  actions.

Beneficial reaction against the work by children, effective causes on family decisions and lowering the level of existent menaces on the children in Afghanistan need basic research. Attention to work by children has caused many positive plans, policies and developments though there is not any comprehensive and complete strategy to unify the interferences of implementing and governmental organizations to prevent, decrease and eliminate the work by children and deliver the required services them.

Ok dear countrymen the fact that which problem are faced the road side children with, what has caused that they should work, you will read the answers in an interview that I have accomplished with Engineer Mohammad Yusuf the director of ASCHIANA organization through program of Campaign for Change of life of radio killid.

Question: Mr. Yusuf! Can you give me information about ASCHIANA organization?

Answer: The ASCHIANA has been working since 18 years in Afghanistan to support the poor, road side worker children and children in crisis to enable the children to participate in the community, prepare them the ground of education and to give public awareness about their rights.

We have centers in Kabul, Parwan, Mazar Sharif, Badakhshan, Hirat, Paktia and other provinces that mobilize our aids from.

Question: As our issue is the problems of Road Side worker Children so how do you assess the situation of children in Afghanistan?

Answer: You may know that three decades of war confronted the people with numerous problems, the children were born in war and grew in war so they are deprived from education, they are busy onerous works and they don’t have access to education, the survey that we conducted with cooperation of Central Census Office/Central Statistics Office in 2003 showed that a number of 28000 children are busy on onerous work on the roads the mentioned number  have increased but due to lack of exact figures we cannot help all of them, a sampling census took place recently on the number of worker children and children in crisis as the mentioned census cannot represent the whole country so it is not beneficial, the situation in remote areas is very worrying where the government doesn’t has the access to, the census of worker children and children in crisis is exact only in Kabul as everyone can easily make reports from.

Question: How many children have you furnished by education ground beside preparation the ground of work for the mentioned children?

Answer: This differs very year, for instance last year we were able to provide education ground for 10000 beside the preparation the proper job opportunity and spoke with their families regarding the value of education as they agreed not to send their children to work rather they should encourage them to education, also there are families with middle level economy namely they  can solve their problems themselves but as they are addicted on sending their children to work so they prevent them from education.

Question: What are the causes that children work?

Answer: There are numerous causes that result the children work, the families that migrated to Pakistan and Iran and returned back faced the economic problems as work ground was not available for elders so the children had to work, the same the weak economy of people inside the country also coerced the families to send the children to work, on the other hand many of elders were addicted with narcotics so their children started working on the roads, many children were kept deprived from education so they started work on the roads so all these causes could easily lead the children to work on the roads and the families were using the gotten incomes to repel the economic requirements, the families were not letting the children to continue the studies and they were not  thinking that what the children would do tomorrow, as it happened that many of the children that are faced with the problems are due to inattention of their elders as the elders have encouraged them to work instead of education, the  people will not help them rather misconduct with them even abuse them.

Question: What are the effects of public awareness about importance of education and rights of children?

Answer: When public awareness is conducted regarding the children rights in the community many people would not coerce their children to do onerous works, also if the children themselves know their rights they would defend their rights and would try to get their rights, also if public awareness is given regarding the importance of education so the people would encourage their children to education instead of work, there are people that think if they send their children to school they would lose the income but they should know that education doesn’t prevent anyone from getting the income rather the education show the way of getting the income.

Question: What activities have accomplished your organization and other similar organizations to solve problems of children?

Answer: We have done a lot about public awareness through participation in roundtables, interviews and programs facilitated by the TVs and radios, we have also accomplished affairs regarding the installation the posters, pictures and post cards prepared by the children in different proper locations, we complied the law of work and rights of children and facilitated joining to international convention of the children.

Question: How we can prevent the children from onerous works and their parents from sending them to other countries?

Answer: Though the works that don’t damage the mental, physical, spiritual and educational growth of children are good because by these works the mentality of the child would become bright, its spirit would be calm, its knowledge would be increased and its body would grow; but the children should be kept way from the works that  create obstacles against the mental, spiritual, educational, and physical growth, so to achieve these goals the government should provide the ground of work for other members of the family, the public awareness regarding the rights of children must be increased to parents, the ground of education must be provided, the government should put in practice all available laws as the government should punish all the criminals who smuggle or send the children to abroad though as we have spoken to families they say that they send their children out of the country only because good ground of living is not provided inside the country.