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The frequency of children living with neither parent, with the mother only, and with the father
only is presented in Table 11.6. The majority (94%) of children aged 0-17 years in Afghanistan
live with both of their parents. However, around 2% of children are living with neither parent.
There are no significant differentials of children living with both the parents by gender, area, or
household socio-economic status. However, there is notable variance by region, as well as
among different age groups. The Central Highlands region has the lowest rate (89%) of children
who live with both parents, while the Eastern region has highest rate (97%), and other regions
have a figure ranging from 93% to 95%. The percentage of children living with both parents
declines as children s ages increase. It is not surprising that the highest percentage of children
living with both parents is found among children aged 0-4 years (98%), while it is lowest for
children aged 15-17 years (84%).
One of the measures developed for assessing the status of orphaned children relative to their
non-orphaned peers looks at the school attendance of children aged 10-14 for children who
have lost both parents versus children whose parents are alive (and who live with at least one
of these parents). If children whose parents have died do not have the same access to school as
their peers, then families, then schools and other stakeholders are not ensuring that these
children s rights are being met. Table 11.7 shows the school attendance of children age 10-14
years by orphanhood.
Table 11.7: School attendance of orphans and non-orphans
School attendance of children age 10-14 years by orphanhood, Afghanistan, 2010-2011
Sex
Percentage
of children
whose
mother and
father have
died
(orphans)
Percentage of
children of
whom both
parents are alive
and child is living
with at least one
parent (nonorphans)
Number
of children
age 10-14
years
Percentage
of children
who are
orphans
and are
attending
school 1
Total
number of
orphan
children
age 10-14
years
Percentage
of children
who are
non-orphans
and are
attending
school 2
Total
number of
non-orphan
children age
10-14 years
Orphans to
nonorphans
school
attendance
ratio
Male 1.0 93.1 7,500 53.0 78 67.7 6,985 0.78
Female 1.4 92.4 6,899 19.1 93 46.1 6,373 0.41
Residence
Urban 0.6 92.7 2,621 (*) 16 79.8 2,430 0.61
Rural 1.3 92.8 11,778 33.0 156 52.4 10,929 0.63
Total 1.2 92.8 14,399 34.4 171 57.4 13,358 0.60
1
MICS indicator 9.19; MDG indicator 6.4; 2 MICS indicator 9.20; MDG indicator 6.4
Note: (*) indicates that the percentage is calculated on fewer than 25 unweighted cases
In Afghanistan, 1% of children aged 10-14 have lost both parents (Table 11.7). Among those,
only 34% are currently attending school. Among the children aged 10-14 who have not lost a
parent and who live with at least one parent, 57% are attending school. This would suggest that
orphans are found to be out of school at nearly double the rate than non-orphaned children.
The school attendance ratio of orphans to non-orphans is 0.60. 21
21
Further disaggregation on the indicator is deemed unnecessary since the number of orphans aged 10-14 found in
the survey is fairly small in total (171 orphans).
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