It was about five thirty in the evening and darkness had crept into the city. A female beggar could be seen shivering with cold, drenched in rain walking and imploring more people for charity. When she stretched out her hand to me, my emotions prompted me to ask her about her life conditions. Even though, I was touched by the picture, nonetheless, I repressed my feelings and breathed no word. She continued wandering from shop to shop and street to street. The rain and cold gave her no mercy. It was, indeed, a sad story.

I was obsessed with her condition and that of thousands of others like her. The poor live in the depth of poverty. One wonders how they make ends meet. The bitter fact of economic deprivation under which our people across the country live, chills one to the bone. It is a matter of great concern. The difficulty of living by begging in winter is beyond imagination. In addition, as begging is rampant in the country and the graph is getting higher every year, these beggars are given a cold shoulder by the passersby. It becomes a case of sympathy exhaustion.
As individuals we cannot help every beggar. So we ignore them.

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries on the planet. It takes its place among desperate, destitute nations like Burkina Faso and Somalia whenever any international organization bothers to measure. Official statistics say that, the level of poverty in Afghanistan is thirty to forty percent and around 20 million people are living below the poverty line.

Violence against women is not the only challenge pressurizing women; however, poverty compounds their problems. Presently, we see more female beggars in Kabul city and it is believed that many of them are those who have no bread-earners in their families. They struggle to nourish their children. Therefore, begging is the only way left for them. It is beyond doubt that begging is disgrace for women and that is why they put on burqas while begging. Ill-fatedly they are with no choice other than accepting this humiliation.

Children are one of the victims of poverty in Afghanistan. They are forced by economic conditions to labor along-side their fathers from dawn to dusk to earn a living. Some of the Afghan children are doing back-breaking tasks which are a violation of their rights. In addition, a video shows on YouTube that a man sells his son in one of the country’s provinces, to save the other members of his family from the danger of death which would be caused by poverty.

Economic insecurity is one of the factors which affects our life. Three decades of war have affected the life of people badly. This results in serious economic pressures. The trace of war is still felt tremendously in the country; however, insecurity exacerbates the situation. Insecurity limits job opportunities for the heads of families. Sometimes the bread-winners lose their lives leaving large families behind without any economic supporters. Moreover job insecurity compounds the challenge. Hence, insecurity is one of the factors which disturbs the flow of economic process across the country.

In Afghanistan, rural lives are afflicted by poverty more than urban lives. When I had job missions in different parts of Daikundi Province, I was touched greatly with their conditions of life. “Style” was the most meaningless word in their life. Males and females were wearing the same type of shoes and they were trying to find more durable shoes. Either the bread-winners were fully jobless or just passing time working in their small fields. In winter, it was traditional among the family heads to gather somewhere for playing their traditional games or gambling.

Poverty will lead to more crime and corruption in our society. This Islamic quotation says very rightly that when poverty knocks the door, the faith will go out from the window. As a result, in Daikundi province, where people were suffering from economic strain, many family heads were opium addicted. The youths were wasting time in making contacts with the opposite gender. Incidents of elopement were frequent. “An idle mind is the workshop of the Devil.” Hence, the twin problems joblessness and poverty will certainly lead to higher crime rates.

Poverty will also lead to violence in the family life. When there is not found a morsel of bread in the house, conflicts will emerge between spouses. Furthermore, the children will be forced to do back-breaking jobs or even be sold, as common in the country, so as to alleviate the economic pressure of their family.

Poverty with all its many factors will give birth to many other challenges in social and individual life. I express emphatically that the youths will show higher tendencies towards crime and corruption by the economic pressure. Moreover, many of our youths and children will abandon the idea of going to school or university due to poor life condition. Illiteracy will be one of the issues to be given birth by poverty and support crime and corruption across the country.

Ahmad is a ten-year-old boy who is selling plastic bags in Kabul city. He has also some friends of his age who are selling trivial objects such as cigarette, chewing gum, phone card, etc. I overheard that he was speaking English to his friends. I was surprised and asked him if he goes to school. He and his friends all gathered around me and said that they all go to school and to English class. However, due to poor condition of life, they have to sell those objects in the afternoon. One can see many children in Kabul city walking in the streets and bazaar selling some minor things or carrying brush to polish the shoes of people so as to make a penny for their families. Life is highly intolerable for them.