At least four million Afghan children are deprived of normal schooling, while 1.2 million of them are associated with child labour as reported by TOLOnews citing data from the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare. 

On the World Children’s Day event, Bashir Ahmad Tahyanj, Afghanistan’s acting minister for labour and social welfare, depicted a grim picture of the harsh reality faced by Afghan children amid conflict coupled by poverty. 

“We need more resources,” the minister said pointing out that the country will have a “challenging year” ahead especially for the children. 

The issue was compounded as the country has been facing a double whammy of the global pandemic and increased violence all across the country.  

A report by the United Nations last years estimated that nearly 2 million children aged under were facing the risk of extreme hunger. 

Around 10,000 Afghan children live in orphanages, of them 3,000 alone become homeless this year due to ongoing conflict, informed Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Ghulam Haider Jailani. 

The United Nations recently warned Afghanistan would face a humanitarian disaster if the concern regarding growing violence not addressed.

Violence and poverty further pushed many Afghans out of school. “We are going to mosque for learning, we learn the Holy Quran,” said Zazila who got internally displaced due to ongoing conflict.