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Afghan Children Turning to Life on Street

Begging or selling, many are family's only source of income

By Sam Gale Rosen, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 31, 2008 3:55 AM CST

(Newser) – An estimated 60,000 children in Afghanistan spend their days hawking trinkets or begging on the streets, and many are their families' sole source of income. Aid workers say the kids are a legacy of the country's 25 years of nearly continuous war, NPR reports. "The majority of them are not going to the school because they are working full time," one said.

The kids average less than $2 for a day's work. And the aid workers say Afghanistan just has too much on its plate, including the resurgence of the Taliban, to concentrate on helping them. "My father is old, my mother is weak and only I can make the household run. So I need to sell plastic bags," explained one 14-year-old boy.

An Afghan boy, left, walks on the grave yard of a deadly suicide attack%u2019s victims in Baghlan province, north of Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday, Nov. 12, 2007. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq) (Associated Press)

An Afghan labor boy pushes a cart, as his younger brother is seen on the cart in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Jan. 20, 2008. Youngsters have to grow up fast in Afghanistan _ particularly around... (Associated Press)

Afghan street children warm their hands over a fire in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan on Saturday, Jan. 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq) (Associated Press)

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Begging or selling, many are family's only source of income

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