Reuters reported that for around USD 2 a day some Afghan children as young as 10 work long hours in the country coal mines with no safety gear and, until now no government mining policy to protect them.
While national law allows Afghan children to work up to 35 hours a week from the age of 14, they are not allowed to do hazardous jobs such as mining. But after 30 years of conflict and with many children the sole family breadwinners, aid and rights groups say the laws are flouted and not enforced.
As Afghanistan tries to attract foreign investors to develop an estimated USD 3 trillion worth of untapped mineral deposits, Mines Minister Mr Wahidullah Shahrani has been working to expand and clean up the industry and has drafted a policy officially setting the minimum age for coal mine workers at 18.
He said that "We drafted the first-ever social policy guidelines to make sure that when it comes to the labor force, and when it comes to health and safety and most importantly on the issue of child labor, we will have some type of standards."
He added that "Previously we did not have any official policy at the Ministry of Mines."
Mr Shahrani said the guidelines are due to be implemented in the next few months and mining inspectors would be employed to ensure the rules are upheld. But critics have questioned the government capacity to manage the mining industry.
Since Mr Shahrani became minister at the start of 2010 he has drawn up the ministry's first business plan and signed Afghanistan to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative as a candidate country. He was optimistic that by April 2012 Afghanistan would get full EITI compliant status.
Afghanistan rich mineral deposits have been trumpeted as the key to future prosperity, but experts say the bounty is many years even decades away and point to massive security and infrastructure challenges for potential investors.
The country however has already awarded a contract to China top copper producer, Jiangxi Copper Co and China Metallurgical Group Corp for the big Aynak mine south of Kabul.
(Sourced from Reuters)
