19 pc children engaged in child labour in Afghanistan: OCHA

Kabul, June 13 (IANS) Nineteen per cent of children are engaged in child labour in Afghanistan, the Afghanistan office of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

"The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs is trying to prevent child labour and support their families. The Ministry has activated training centres for orphaned children and has provided vocational training along with other assistance to the children," local media outlet TOLOnews quoted the Ministry's Spokesperson Samiullah Rahimi as saying on Wednesday.

Folad, an Afghan child working at a brick factory in the Dehsabz district of Afghanistan's capital of Kabul, told Xinhua, "I am interested in going to school, but I can't. We (our family) are in debt, and I'm not able to continue my studies because of poverty. If the government supports my family, I can go to school and continue my lessons."

Four decades of war and extreme poverty in Afghanistan have forced numerous children to work as child labourers or struggle to make a living on the street from car washing to shoe shining as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.

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