Kabul: After the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the condition of women and children in the country is dire. They struggle to push each day forward, hungry and without freedom. Some pictures have been released that show the plight of poverty in Afghanistan. A picture has emerged of young children dropping out of school to work in a brick factory on the outskirts of Kabul to feed their families, feed their hunger, and support their families for the life ahead.
Aid agencies say the number of child laborers in Afghanistan is on the rise after the economy collapsed following a takeover by the Afghan Taliban. According to a recent survey conducted by Save the Children, half of the families in Afghanistan are forced to work their children to collect food because their livelihoods have collapsed. For every 1000 bricks the kids make, that’s the equivalent of $4.
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According to Save the Children’s survey, the percentage of households that said they had a child working outside the home increased from 18% to 22% from December to June. Images of the many brick factories on the highway north from the capital, Kabul, bring tears to the world’s conscience. Conditions in the furnaces are harsh even for adults. Then tell the condition of the children? Children do each step of the brick making process. They haul canisters filled with water and carry brick molds full of wood to dry in the sun. They load and push wheelbarrows loaded with dry bricks into the kiln for firing. Then wheelbarrows full of filled bricks are pushed back. Children are now doing all the work in the furnace.