Government urged to pay attention to child labor issue

KABUL (Pajhwok): Wolesi Jirga or lower house of the parliament, on Monday termed child labor and their current conditions a matter of conce and asked the govement to pay attention to the issue.

Hamidullah Tokhi, a representative from Zabul province, told the house today that govement statistics showed more than three million children were busy on labor tasks across the country.

He said the govement did not pay proper attention to the situation of labor children who were also deprived from primary education.

Children’s trafficking, their adherence to the Taliban ranks and dozens of other problems have threatening Afghan children, but the govement have no plan to deal with them, he said.

Humaira Ayubi, a lawmaker from Farah province, said that a large number of poor children were obliged to accept labor activities in order to ea and feed their families.

“The number of labor children is increasing by each passing day which also led to increase in violence against children as well,” she added.

A representative from Kunduz province, Fatima Azizi said that Afghan labor children’s situation was a matter of serious conce as thousands of children have to tolerate physical violence on a daily basis due to poverty.

She accused the govement on negligence about children’s situation and said, “The govement has no a decisive plan for improving labor children’s situation in the country,”

She added that sometimes the Taliban also use the children as tools during fighting against the govement.

Negligence about labor children’s situation would have unpleasant consequences in the future, Azizi added.

The first deputy speaker of Wolesi Jirga, Haji Zahir Qadir, also expressed conce about the labor children’s situation and demanded govement’s urgent attention on the regard.

He said labor children were vulnerable than any other group of society and they needed effective programs for improving their situation.

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