Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Wrestling with Economic Challenges

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Wrestling with Economic Challenges

“Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries on earth with two out of every three of its citizens struggling to provide bread and tea for their families.” These words were written by Human Rights Dimension of Poverty in Afghanistan in 2010. But has the situation changed since then?

The tension for the rise of poverty in Afghanistan has increased in circumstances where drought and unemployment have greatly affected the lives of the people and have created great problems for them.

A great number of Afghans are completely illiterate. Among widows, the proportion is much higher. In the old days, it was incumbent on the families of the husbands to look after the widows. Whatever one might think of the practice, in theory, at least, it provided security for vulnerable people. But this is just one part of the social fabric that has collapsed, with nothing to mitigate that loss or replace it. There are too many widows now, too many orphans. Widows cast out from the homes of their in-laws, and their children, have nothing, not even a surname.

The child plays an important economic role in the Afghan family structure, mainly because the little money earned by their parents is hardly enough to feed the hungry mouths in the family. Additionally, due to cultural practices, Afghan mothers rarely choose to seek employment outside their homes. In this situation, the family relies upon the economic contribution of the child, even if it means the child is left begging on the streets.

The consequences which follow their obligation to work are indeed tragic: absence of education, violence and disease linked to pollution and to the drastically changing climate - In summer the temperature goes as high as 40°C or more and in winter the temperature could go down to -20°C.

There are an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 street children in the Afghan capital alone. Among them are those who could not afford an education as refugees in Iran or Pakistan, and are unable to go to school as returnees in Afghanistan because they have to work from dawn to dusk to support their families.

Kabul is awash with street children, hundreds of thousands of them, wandering through rubbish, selling plastic bags, repairing bicycles, laboring for shoe-makers, or asking for alms in return for sending unwelcome wafts of aromatic smoke from the tin cans they wave at likely-looking passers-by.

The number of beggars in the streets of Kabul is on the rise – especially with the approach of summer. Wearing shabby cloths with worn-out shoes, beggars of all descriptions, young and old, disabled and physically fit, scrounge for alms all over the city. They can be seen in every street, market and square as well as in front of five-star hotels or restaurants known for frequenting by foreigners and well-off people.

This is particularly problematic for Afghan children who are refugees after having fled the war. In refugee camps located in Pakistan or in Iran the number of child refugees can be up to 1.5 million. These children find their status illegal and thus they are not entitled to any sort of a civil right as a citizen in the country because they do not have an official legal existence.

Young Afghans are often made victims of violence. In 2009, around 250 children were killed during terrorist attacks – these facts are deeply embedded in poverty. The current militancy and suicide bombings carried out by the Taliban militants have aggravated the situations. The local businessmen fear to invest in the country since there is no guarantee for their lives or properties. A great number of NGOs have left Afghanistan with the withdrawal of foreign troops. The youths are wrestling with unemployment and the simple workmen can hardly make the ends met. A sense of chagrin has circulated among the citizens.

The intensification and spread of the armed conflict in recent months has increased insecurity and exacerbated poverty. Insecurity dominates policy discussions and funding decisions, neglecting the importance of social and economic security that is central to establishing stability and a just and lasting peace.

After all, the most discussed aspect of the abuse of power in Afghanistan is corruption and the diversion of resources, including those allocated by the international community. In 2005 Afghanistan ranked 117 out of 159 countries on Transparency International’s Corruption Index. Four years later, Afghanistan was assessed as the second most corrupt country in the world, just ahead of strife-torn Somalia. In 2010, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported that Afghans paid USD 2.5 billion in bribes over the past year. One Afghan out of two had to pay at least one bribe to a public official.

Afghans have repeatedly, identified “poverty and unemployment as the driving forces behind insecurity”, and called for these issues to be addressed as a priority. Some people participate in insurgent activities to acquire an income. Joining anti-government elements or undertaking other illegal activities, such as drug production and trafficking, is often more lucrative, and with immediate returns, than struggling with farming or working in the informal sector for low wages.

Hope government considers the economic constraints and addresses them immediately. In short, since the government commits itself to “strengthen political, social, economic as well as defense institutions and attain a prosperous life and sound living environment for all inhabitants of this land…”, it will put these words into practice.

Hujjatullah Zia is the permanent writer of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at zia_hujjat@yahoo.com

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