As the current wave of extremely cold and snowy weather continues in Kabul and northern and central provinces, more people are being victimized by it. As there are many who do not have the basic requirements of life and the facilities to fight against such an extreme weather, the concerns have increased. The poor are the most vulnerable and among them the children are prone to danger of becoming the victims of different sorts of diseases and even death.

The UK charity, Save the Children, mentioned on Saturday, February 18, 2012 that already 28 children, living in camps near Kabul, have become the victim of the tyrant winter and unfortunately there are possibilities that more children may be severely influenced as the weather does not seem to be getting any better in the coming week as well.

There is possibility that the temperature may reach to even -17 degree centigrade, which would make life very difficult. A spokesman of the charity has mentioned, "Kabul has been badly affected by the freezing conditions, along with northern and central provinces in Afghanistan. Here many children are already severely weakened by malnutrition because of a major food crisis caused by drought and high food prices.

The charity is also concerned that the camps may flood when the snow eventually melts." The deteriorating weather conditions are going to influence the children to a great extent as they are very much sensitive and need great care and proper nutrition and medication.

Save the Children's country director, Bob Grabman, has, in this regard, said, "This has been a brutal winter and children have little to protect them from the biting cold. Many are trying to survive without decent shelter or blankets, without fuel, food, warm clothes or shoes." Apart from severe cold, unfortunately, there are many other evils as well that target the Afghan children.

Children are basically the future of a nation. Healthy, educated and optimistic children guarantee a better and prosperous future for a nation. Therefore, their nourishment and security must be the top priority of a society. Unfortunately, our country has not been able to guarantee a secure and reputable position for the children of the society.

Many children, because of improper birth or because of lack of health facilities and insufficient nutrition either die in the very beginning of their lives or able to drag on their lives with certain physical deformities and serious diseases. Therefore, they are unable to live healthily in severe weather conditions.

Most of the children of the society are not able to have access to education, either because of the financial problems or the traditional hatred of the parents for modern schooling system. The girls in this regard suffer even to more extreme levels.

Moreover, the children who do not get a chance to be admitted in school are then sent out for labor so that they can prove to be a helping hand for their parents and in the process they are left at the mercy of the social evils. Child labors are exposed to crimes and maltreatment to a risky extent, especially the ones who are employed by shop-owners, mechanics and small firms. They are even put to violent treatment by their employers on pity matters.

According to United Nations' second country (Afghanistan) report regarding the violence against children, the phenomenon is considered to be multifaceted. It involves recruitment of children by armed forces and armed groups.

The involvement of armed forces in this regard is really embarrassing. UN Country Task Force for Monitoring and Reporting has verified 26 out of 47 reported incidents that prove that children were recruited by militant groups and security forces in the years 2009 and 2010.

The recruitment that is carried out by militant groups is mostly for the purpose of carrying out suicide attacks through them, who because of their immaturity or because of the intense pressure do not understand the incentive of their actions. There have been many incidents of suicide attacks in different parts of the country, wherein the attacker were below 16 years of age.

Apart from that the children are also welcomed by the militant groups with the intention to have a cadre that they can train in accordance to their own will, within their training camps – mostly madressahs. The attitude of a trained militant clearly depicts the fact that the training sessions in those camps do involve severe kind of violence and maltreatment.

This particular trend carried out by the militants comes as a result of the inhuman attitude of those groups and their negligence of national and international law, but the recruitment of the children by security forces including Afghan National Police, who are said to be the guardian of law and order and who also claim to adhere by the international law, is really confusing.

One of the biggest reasons for this particular trend has been the urgency of Afghan security forces to complete the required quantity, irrespective of quality

The second type of the violence includes the killing and maiming of the children because of the conflict-related violence. This also includes accidental killings or injuries by the national and international security forces, which, though relatively are much lower than the ones committed by the terrorists.

Unfortunately, most of the deaths or injuries in this regard have been the result of the violent attacks of the terrorists on schools and hospitals. Such attacks do not only take precious lives but tend to inflict fear among parents and children regarding attending schools.

The third type of violence, according to the report is the sexual violence against children. This violence is committed both against boys and girls. But it is unfortunate to note that there is not any comprehensive law in the constitution that can be realized into practical measures to curb the situation and many children keep on becoming the victims of this sort of violence even by the so called decent people of the society. The other types of violence include abduction and denial of humanitarian access. The report shows 77 cases of abduction, for varying purposes.

The security of the children against all sort of violence, their proper nourishment, their care against the natural diseases, severe weather conditions, natural disasters and their character development are the most important considerations to contemplate on, if the government is really serious to safeguard the rights of the children.

The same children are going to be the builders of future; their proper care should be ascertained through every possible means. Apart from the government the members of the society can also play a tremendous role in diminishing violence against the children and uplifting their morale.