A latest UNICEF report The State of World's Children 2012: Children in an Urban World highlights the plight of Afghan children, particularly the challenges faced by them in urban areas. Besides the fact that children have been the worst victims of the last four decades of conflict in Afghanistan, they are still the most vulnerable despite the significant improvements witnessed in the last ten years of international efforts in our country.
According to UNICEF Representative Peter Crowley, internal displacement and migration of families to urban areas are increasing and basic services in these areas are often inadequate. Children in urban areas face huge challenges.
As a predominately rural country, when one imagines the plight of children, the focus has been on rural areas, while larger problems for Afghan children are in cities. For instances, in capital Kabul a large number of beggars are street children.
According to a previous UNICEF report, there are more than 4000 children begging on the streets of Kabul. Afghan children live under extreme circumstances. Child labor and sex abuse are another common misery. Three decades of war affected children the worst. An entire generation was deprived of education. About 300,000 children died during this period.
Large numbers of children die each year due to malnutrition. One third of the landmine victims in Afghanistan are children. Infant mortality rate is at worst. The situation is worsened with deplorable health condition, nutrition and food insecurity, lack of schools and physical violence.
And the bulk of all these problems are in cities. Sexual violence against children is very common. Child sex-abuse cases occur, but mostly go unreported. Mostly such cases are not reported and registered as a matter of honor of the family members of raped children.
The Government has not been doing satisfactorily enough to develop the deplorable condition of children with basic services such as education.
Insecurity and poverty are the prime factors behind the problems such as child labor. We are witnessing a very slow pace in elimination of poverty and price hike. There are a considerable number of families headed by children—solely responsible for livelihood of the family.
Child rights are widely violated across the country. People with socio-religious mindset do not allow girls to go schools. Today half of the 15 million Afghan children are deprived of education. There are at least 200,000 children in Afghanistan with disability.
The Government and International community should pay attention to the most deprived segment of war-ravaged Afghan society.