Afghanistan: Financial crisis forces children to work in brick factories
New Delhi: With clarity in mind and no hesitation, the predictions on the future of Afghanistan that have done by the international political experts have come true. The financial situation of the landlocked country has changed since the Taliban has comes to authority.
The experts have predicted that the local afghans may have to suffer from a financial crisis in a few upcoming months, and children and women will face lots of trouble to survive under the leadership of the Taliban.
According to Afghanistan’s local media report, The owners of brick factories, Awozubillah said that “in just three brick factories 170 families with their children are engaged in hard labor. Many families and children to feed themselves are forced to work in brick factories.”
“There are 170 families which work to make bricks, and there are around 60 people which have come here without family, all of these families have come from Jalalabad,” said Awozubillah, the owner of a brick factory.
Families working at the factories said that in order to find food, their children have been kicked out of school and are busy working in the factory from morning to evening. “I work here to provide a piece of bread for my family, though it doesn’t help that much,” said Javid, a laborer working at the factory.
Nine-year-old Emran, who left school in order to feed his family, said that two of his sisters are also working in the factory from morning till evening, and at the end of the day the total of their income is less than five hundred Afghanis (Afghan currency), says a media report.
According to the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), at least 900,000 Afghans have lost their jobs since the Taliban took control last August. Working women are disproportionately affected, according to SIGAR, with women’s employment expected to fall by 21 percent by mid-2022, reported the media.
Since the Taliban took power, unemployment has skyrocketed, and poverty across many parts of the country has put millions of people at risk.
According to the International Labour Organization, more than 500,000 Afghan workers lost their jobs in the third quarter of 2021, and the number of people who will lose their jobs since the Taliban took control is expected to reach 700,000 to 900,000 people by mid-2022.
Due to four decades of conflict, severe drought, and pandemics, Afghanistan’s economy was already collapsing. After the Taliban seized power following the hasty withdrawal of US soldiers, the international community froze Afghanistan’s assets and withheld help.
(Vinayak)
