Household chores and child labour

88 Figure 5.30: Children aged 5 to 17, by sex, residence, and by activity status in percentages a a. Boys b. Girls a Numbers in parentheses denote the proportion of children in each category from the population of children between 5 and 17 years of age in Afghanistan.

5.5.4 Household chores and child labour

Apart from involvement in economic activities covered in the previous sections, children are often also involved in a variety of household chores, such as collecting firewood, fetching water, cooking, cleaning, washing, shopping and caring for children, old or sick people. Figure 5.31 shows that at all ages from age 5 upward, more than half of the children performed at least one household task during the reference week before the survey. This was the case for most children in the age groups of 12 years and above. Nevertheless, this proportion rises to almost 100 percent for girls, suggesting that almost all girls aged 12 and above perform such household duties. Fetching water or collecting firewood is the most common household duty performed by children 37 percent, followed by taking care of children 31 percent, cleaning 26 percent and shopping 22 percent Figure 5.32 . Overall, girls are more engaged in household chores than boys 49 against 33 percent, particularly in those tasks that are often considered ‘female tasks’ and that are performed inside the dwelling, such as care for children and old and sick household members, cleaning and washing. Boys are more involved in tasks that expose them to the outside world, such as shopping, collecting firewood and repair of household equipment. 77 90 73 61 4 4 4 3 20 6 23 36 National 47 Urban 11 Rural 33 Kuchi 2 Residence 63 83 59 43 4 3 4 2 33 14 37 55 20 40 60 80 100 National 53 Urban 12 Rural 37 Kuchi 3 P er ce n tag e Residence Not working Working child Child labourer 89 Figure 5.31: Percentage of children aged 5 to 17 engaged in household chores, by sex, and by age Figure 5.32: Percentage of children aged 5 to 17 engaged in chores, by task, and by sex Children engaging in household tasks is not necessarily harmful and can even be viewed positively as a means of socialisation and gaining life skills. However, if engagement in household duties retards children’s development in other areas, such as education and good health, the impact of household work on children may be as damaging as the impact of engaging in economic activities. This is why the UNICEF definition of child labour includes aspects of household chores. More specifically, next to the ILO criteria for child labour specified in section 5.5.1 above, the UNICEF definition also includes children aged 5 to 14 who are engaged in at least 28 hours of domestic work per week, and children 15 to 17 who are engaged in at least 43 hours of household services per week. Including children who are involved in domestic chores for many hours, increases the proportion of child labourers from 27 to 29 percent of all children aged 5 to 17 Table 5.9 . The increase is especially attributed to girls of whom 24 instead of 20 percent are considered child labourers according to the UNICEF definition. The increase for boys – who are less involved in household chores – is more modest, 66 74 55 60 82 94 84 98 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Boys Girls P er ce n tag e Total 5-11 12-14 15-17 37 31 26 22 19 11 8 41 41 20 4 34 2 8 12 33 33 44 51 8 38 14 4 49 10 20 30 40 50 60 Getting water or firewood Child care Cleaning Shopping Washing clothes Care for the old and sick Repair Other tasks P er ce n tag e Both sexes Boys Girls 90 from 33 to 34 percent. Altogether, if the UNICEF definition is applied, more than 3 million children in Afghanistan – 1.9 million boys and 1.2 million girls are engaged in work, whether household chores or economic work that threatens their developmental potential. With regard to the prevalence of child labour by age, it is particularly boys aged 12 and older who are burdened with economic and domestic work: close to half of them can be classified as child labourers according to the UNICEF definition Figure 5.33 . Girls in the age group 12 to 14 are affected somewhat less, as slightly more than a third of them are in child labour. However, even very young boys and girls up to age 11 are often involved in child labour: 25 of boys and 19 percent of girls, respectively. Table 5.9: Children aged 5 to 17, by activity status, and by sex, age UNICEF definition in thousands Sex, age Not working Working child Child labourer Total Both sexes 6,907.3 387.0 3,040.7 10,334.9 5-11 4,761.3 0.0 1,375.5 6,136.8 12-14 1,219.2 177.9 972.7 2,369.8 15-17 926.8 209.1 692.5 1,828.3 Total perc. 66.8 3.7 29.4 100.0 Boys 3,376.6 211.6 1,859.7 5,447.9 5-11 2,415.6 0.0 808.4 3,224.0 12-14 593.1 99.4 588.9 1,281.4 15-17 367.9 112.2 462.3 942.5 Total perc. 62.0 3.9 34.1 100.0 Girls 3,530.7 175.3 1,181.0 4,887.1 5-11 2,345.7 0.0 567.1 2,912.8 12-14 626.1 78.5 383.8 1,088.4 15-17 558.9 96.9 230.1 885.9 Total perc. 72.2 3.6 24.2 100.0 Figure 5.33: Boys and girls aged 5 to 17, by age, and by activity status in percentages a. Boys b. Girls 72 81 58 63 4 7 11 24 19 35 26 Total 5-11 12-14 15-17 Age 62 75 46 39 4 8 12 34 25 46 49 20 40 60 80 100 Total 5-11 12-14 15-17 P er ce n tag e Age Not working Working child Child labourer 91 6 FARMING AND LIVESTOCK Summary . The ALCS 2013-14 confirms that agriculture – encompassing farming and animal husbandry - makes up the backbone of Afghanistan’s economy. Agriculture provides a source of income for 61 percent of households, and for 28 percent it is the most important income source in the household. Similarly, it is the main sector of employment for 44 percent of the working population. Some 37 percent of all households in Afghanistan – approximately 1.4 million households – own any irrigated farm land, while around one in six households – 620 thousand – own the much less productive rain-fed land. Mechanisms of leasing and renting land, sharecropping land and mortgaging land have the effect of a net transfer of access to farm land from land-owners living in urban areas to rural households that cultivate the land. At the same time these mechanisms result in somewhat fewer households having access to somewhat larger farming areas. On average, households engaged in irrigated cultivation have on average access to 6.6 jeribs of irrigated land and those engaged in rain-dependent agriculture have access to 13.7 jeribs of rain-fed land. Poor soil, farming costs and particularly the lack of water enforce households to leave fallow around one third of land available for irrigated and rain-fed farming. The large majority of households cultivating irrigated land – 85 percent, corresponding to more than million households – grew wheat on their land for the spring harvesting season. Fodder crops, potatoes and maize or sorghum were the next most frequently grown crops on irrigated land. The concentration on wheat production is even stronger on rain-fed land, as 93 percent of the households involved grow this crop. However, the total volume produced is only one third of the volume produced on irrigated land. Farming households spent on average 14 thousand Afghanis on farming costs, especially on fertiliser, seeds and machinery rent. Together, farming households spent 21 billion Afghanis around 365 million USD on farming inputs. Households owning a garden plot – 13 percent of all households – are usually able to grow high-value and high-nutrition crops. Grapes and apples are the crops grown most often. Livestock is an important asset of Afghan households, either for own household consumption or for market sale of animals and animal products. ALCS 2013-14 data suggest that the number of cattle has reduced, but the number of sheep has increased since 2011-12. A large proportion of livestock owners – 73 percent – had access to animal feed concentrate, but only 37 percent could obtain a sufficient amount. Levels of full vaccination of livestock are low, running from 15 percent for sheep and between 12 and 14 percent for goats, cattle, camels and oxen and yaks, to 9 percent for chickens. Only one in five households involved in either farming or livestock tending used agricultural extension services or veterinary support. Apart from voluntary reasons, the most important reasons for non-use were the lack of knowledge of where or how to obtain the services, the reluctance to offer services by the provider and the distance to the facility.

6.1 Introduction