Industry and occupation Characteristics of employment
Labour force characteristics
34
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Age, according to recommended age brackets of 5-11, 12-14 and 15-17 years of age.
•
Number of hours worked. In Afghanistan, no clear determination of child labour exists, other than that the formal age at entry in the labour market is
16 years, and that for specific types of light work a minimum age of 14 is allowed. In view of the international guidelines for child labour, the present analysis attempts to produce statistics accordingly. However, the NRVA data do not
sufficiently specify the nature of the work done by children, so that the results are at best a conservative approximation. Consequently, a more general description of children engaged in productive work – working or employed children – is
also provided.
The total number of working children in the age range 6-17 is around 1.9 million, which corresponds to 21 percent of all children in that age bracket see Table 4.4. The incidence rises from 12 percent in the youngest age group of 6-11 year
olds, to 27 percent in the middle group aged 12-14, and to 42 percent in the oldest age group of 15-17 year olds. It is consistently higher among Kuchis than among rural and especially urban populations. The working incidence of girls is
consistently lower than that of boys, typically at a level of around 60 percent of that of boys, except for urban areas where it is even lower and the gap is increasing with age.
Looking at the narrower ILO definition of child labour, similar patterns at lower levels are observed for the incidence by sex
and residence, but here the highest incidence by age is found in the middle group. Overall, at least 13 percent of children
aged 6-17 are involved in child labour. This corresponds to around 1.2 million children, of whom close to 800 thousand
are boys and 400 thousand are girls, and some 550 thousand are children under age 12. As the NRVA data cannot provide
full specifications of the nature of work done by children, the true figure for child labour is between the identified 1.2 million
and the 1.9 million of all working children.
Most child labour is done within the dwelling 41 percent, on the land or in gardens 37 percent. However, the distribution sharply differs by sex in accordance with practices of fe-
male mobility. Around 73 percent of girls work inside the dwelling against 25 percent of boys; the corresponding figures for work on the land is 18 and 47 percent. Urban child labour deviates from the overall pattern, as here the employment
in shops, restaurants, markets, etc. is the major place of work 37 percent, next to the dwelling 35 percent and selling on the street 10 percent. Even more than among the rural and Kuchi populations, the work of urban girls is confined
within the house 90 percent.
Engagement in work is clearly a risk for the educational development of children. For each of the primary, secondary and high school age groups, the share of working children not attending school is twice as high as the corresponding share
of children not working respectively 8 versus 4, 17 versus 8, and 32 versus 14 percent. Children involved in work ac- cording to the narrower definition of child labour have even higher non-attendance rates. The adverse effect of working
seems to be stronger for boys than for girls.
Child labour
In accordance with the recommendations of the 18th ICLS, child labour includes the following categories of children:
1. Children age 5–11 years, engaged in any economic activity;
2. Children age 12–14 years, engaged in any economic activity for at least 14 hours a week, or any hazardous
work or worst forms of child labour; 3. Children age 15–17 years, engaged in non-hazardous
economic activities for at least 43 hours per week, and those engaged in any hazardous work or worst forms of
child labour.
Table 4.4 Children 6-17 years of age, by residence, sex, and by age, working status
Age, child labour and working children
Residence, sex Urban
Rural Kuchi
National Boys
Girls Both
sexes Boys
Girls Both
sexes Boys
Girls Both
sexes Boys
Girls Both
sexes
Absolute numbers in thousands 6-11
444 427
870 1,944
1,809 3,753
158 142
300 2,546
2,377 4,923
Working children, of whom 15
8 23
292 167
460 43
24 67
351 199
550 Child labour
15 8
23 292
167 460
43 24
67 351
199 550
Not working 429
419 847
1,651 1,642
3,293 115
118 233
2,195 2,179
4,373 12-14
250 237
487 879
794 1,673
72 52
124 1,200
1,083 2,284
Working children, of whom 40
13 52
323 175
497 40
19 59
402 206
608 Child labour
37 11
48 243
121 365
33 14
47 313
146 459
Not working 210
225 435
557 620
1,176 32
33 65
798 877
1,675 15-17
204 215
419 651
553 1,204
56 34
90 911
803 1,714
Working children, of whom 61
18 79
377 202
580 41
18 60
479 238
718 Child labour
30 6
36 77
33 111
13 4
18 121
43 165
Not working 144
197 341
273 351
625 14
16 31
431 564
996
Total 898
879 1,777
3,474 3,157
6,630 286
228 514
4,657 4,264
8,921
Working children, of whom 116
39 154
992 544
1,536 125
61 186
1,232 644
1,876 Child labour
83 24
107 613
322 935
90 42
132 785
388 1,174
Not working 782
840 1,623
2,481 2,613
5,094 161
167 328
3,425 3,620
7,045
Incidence rates 6-11
Working children 3
2 3
15 9
12 27
17 22
14 8
11 Child labour
3 2
3 15
9 12
27 17
22 14
8 11
12-14
Working children 16
5 11
37 22
30 55
37 48
33 19
27 Child labour
15 4
10 28
15 22
46 27
38 26
13 20
15-17
Working children 30
8 19
58 37
48 74
53 66
53 30
42 Child labour
15 3
9 12
6 9
24 13
20 13
5 10
Total
Working children 13
4 9
29 17
23 44
27 36
26 15
21 Child labour
9 3
6 18
10 14
31 19
26 17
9 13