Afghans are battling rising prices and increasing cost of living, high unemployment, a difficult and long winter and, on top of that, a population explosion of young Afghans who need jobs and decent livelihoods a few years from now. It is easy to despair. Poverty and destitution is still a reality of life for millions of Afghans. Incomes have long been stagnated for the lower middle class Afghans, and those in the middle bracket have also been going through hard times.
What is unfortunate is that unlike other countries where government runs large-scale poverty alleviation and employment generation programs, here in Afghanistan the government is only a mute spectator to the suffering of untold numbers of Afghans. Just over the past few weeks, more than 40 children have died in the cold of the winter in Kabul alone.
This, being a conservative estimate with the real numbers probably higher, is utterly unacceptable to happen in the national capital. The death of these children and many others that went unnoticed was buried under the blaring news emanating from Bagram and throughout the country.
The unprecedented demonstrations across the country in condemnation of the burning of copies of Holy Quran in Bagram military base were shocking enough; Not shocking because more than 8 people were killed including two American soldiers in the process but because these happenings showcased the dark underbelly of Afghan society.
The sheer violence and the destruction that were unleashed by the agitators were more than a reaction against the desecration of the holly book but also pent-up anger, frustration and in-built psychological complexes of a people that have long been suffering and view the international forces present in the country as one cause of their misery.
Frustration and anger has been long building up among vast sections of Afghan people who feel they have been left out in an economic and political system that since its beginnings more ten years ago, have only enriched few while leaving them out in the open. This is their perception and it is only true to a large extent.
These people and these vast sections of Afghan population partly view the Americans and the international forces as one reason for this lop-sided and unfair economic and political situation. A reasonable number of people, took part in these demonstrations were unemployed and economically-challenged young Afghans.
A brief glimpse at the footages and photos of the demonstrations over the past few days makes this clear. Therefore and in the first place, what was the driving force behind these young men to come out of homes and unleash the sort of violence that they did was all the pent-up anger, frustration and resentment born out living in an (in their view) unfair and difficult economic and political system that has denied them a life that they believe they deserve.
Therefore, unemployment and poverty lie at the heart of many of the social problems of which Afghanistan of today has more than plenty. The Afghan leadership and those among the international community who have taken it upon themselves to help Afghanistan should not misinterpret these outbursts of popular anger and frustration.
Instead, they should pay attention and take note of the deeper socio-economic problems and issues that shape and drive these young people to move to violence and riot. At the heart of these socio-economic problems, lie widespread unemployment and poverty. Indeed, these social and economic voices are driving a significant segment of young Afghans to lose hope and exhibit such anti-social behavior.
In order to reduce the current staggering levels of unemployment and to be able to provide gainful employment to millions of unemployed persons and reduce the widespread poverty, job and employment opportunities need to be created. Creation of jobs and employment opportunities in sufficient numbers is in turn closely tied to the status of the country's economy.
A growing economy where the size of the economy measured in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increases year after year would generate jobs and reduce the severity of the problem. Afghanistan's economy needs to be reconstructed in many of its sectors through providing security as well as providing investment by the government, the international community and the Afghan and foreign private sector.
The manufacturing sector which includes industries form the backbone of every economy in today's world. In recent years, many of the old industries from decades ago remain neglected and have not been reconstructed.
In addition to the reconstruction and up-gradation of these industries, new investments in new sectors and manufacturing industries should be pursued by the government of Afghanistan on a priority basis. As a finance professional who has worked in India's stock exchanges, equities markets and financial sector, I can clearly see the miracle of economic growth in reducing unemployment and poverty in India.
Why should not Afghanistan embark on a similar path? Complaining and whining about the widespread unemployment is pointless when we and the government do not take effective steps to fundamentally reconstruct the country's industries and develop the economy by building new industries and creating a vibrant services sector.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has been running vocational programs to train the youth and place them in those small and medium enterprises which need trained and skilled workforce. The achievements of the Ministry have been notable in recent years as it has successfully placed thousands of young people into some sort of a gainful employment for themselves and their families.
But these activities by this ministry and other vocational training institutes of the government easily fade away in the face of the magnitude of the problem. When there are millions of unemployed, giving jobs to a few thousand of them solves very little of the problem.
The Government of Afghanistan should adopt a concerted effort with a long-term, strategic vision in order to lessen the severity of the problem. Long-term planning at the national level by the government and linking the employment generation programs with the long-term economic development plans devised by the government and its international partners are mandatory. While these are long-term plans, over the short-term, extending the vocational programs to all needy populations and providing security would work to bring jobs to many of the desperate unemployed.