Industry and occupation Characteristics of employment

Labour force characteristics 34 • 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

4.5 Labour migration

4.5.1 In-migration

Widespread poverty and a lack of income-generating opportunities drive many Afghans to go and look for work elsewhere see e.g. Ghobadi et al. 2005; AREU 2005. It is therefore not surprising that work is the most important reason for in-migrating Afghans to have moved elsewhere during the past five years see also section 3.5. More than half the households with in-migrants 239 thousand, or 53 percent include such labour migrants. As for general in- migration, the western region stands out, with above average returning labour migrants. Labour migration is an almost exclusively male phenomenon: 94 percent of labour in-migrants are men, compared to 77 percent of all in-migrants and to 51 percent of the total population aged 16 or older. Labour force characteristics 35 Labour migration A returning labour in-migrant as defined here is someone who has moved to the current place of residence some time during the past five years and whose original reason for moving away was work-related. A labour out-migrant has moved away from the present household during the past year in order to go and look for work elsewhere.