Evidence that people are going to desperate lengths to survive the second winter since the Taliban

took control including selling their daughters the Afghan economy has collapsed and the UN’s
described the situation as a catastrophe with millions on the brink of starvation rates of malnutrition
young children have gone up by nearly 50% and the BBC has learned that some people are giving
their hungry children potentially harmful tablets to sedate them well let’s go over to our South Asia
correspondent yogita limaye who’s in Kabul yogita it’s difficult to think of more desperate measures
for parents to take Karen we were in this area last year and even at that time the situation was grim
we had met a few families that had sold told us that they were selling their daughters in marriage
because they needed money to survive but this time when we went back it was overwhelming and
so widespread literally everywhere we went we heard the same stories people having to sell their
young daughters some people even telling us about selling organs to survive and and something that
we have you know in in all of our time covering the humanitarian story in Afghanistan something
that we have never seen on the ground which is parents telling us that they’re giving their children
tranquilizers antidepressants anti anxiety medicines so that they’re hungry children stop crying and
go to sleep this is our report produced with Imogen Anderson and Malik with us just outside herath
live 10s of thousands displaced by years of war and natural disasters a second winter since the
economy collapsed in each home a story of acute hunger they came to us wanting to be heard we
were shocked by what they said their clinic more and our children cry because they’re going to bed
hungry so we give them tablets to put them to sleep they’d be better off dead Abdul wahab said
does anyone else also do the same thing I’m not a lot faster be said gulam hazrat was carrying the
tablets with him they were tranquilizers others later also showed us antidepressants they give their
children in the market you can get 5 tons for the price of one piece of bread gloves it he gives it to his
only how do you sound these men their dignity broken by hunger I sold my 5 year old daughter for
$1200 and sent my teenage son to Iran illegally to work my younger sons collect rubbish every day be
getting we have nothing where should we take our children and go they asked 4 year old nausea lives
next door she’s been sold to be married to a boy from the southern province of Kandahar her father
has regular announced at the local mosque that he wanted to sell him because he couldn’t afford to
feed his family at 14 nausea will be sent away use most of the money to buy food and some for
medicine for my son look at him he’s malnourished and needs treatment I’d never think of selling my
daughter if there was any other option we didn’t have to look hard to find these stories they were
behind every door we walked into from what we’ve seen and heard we know that there is a disaster
unfolding on the ground here hunger is a slow and silent killer and often its effects aren’t
immediately visible but the truth is we will never know the scale of what is happening here because
no one is counting people here feel abandoned by everyone by the government that is currently
running this country and by the whole world yeah this is an emergency more than half the country
needs life saving support millions are a step away from fame the tablets you saw in that piece the
drug in those tablets is the same as is used in xanax which is how much of the world knows it we
asked doctors what that could do to young children and they said if it’s given to you know very young
children without adequate nutrition it can cause liver damage and a host of chronic disorders you
can tell it is difficult to find words after what was in your report what indications are there if any that
help is on the way look Iran humanitarian agencies are able to operate on the ground but most of
them at the moment for their work in Afghanistan are underfunded and essentially they’ve been
trying to provide a humanitarian link in an economy which has collapsed why did the economy
collapse well when the Taliban seized control last year foreign funds which were given to the
previous pretty much ran this country they were abruptly stopped and so people who were living
difficult lives even before that have now been pushed into situations where they literally cannot find
any work we also asked the Taliban government what they’re doing about it they tried to downplay
this downplay the scale of the crisis you know one of the spokesman even said that you know some
of the people are not in as terrible conditions as they’re saying they are but they blame international
sanctions on Afghanistan the freezing of afghanistan’s assets by the international community yogita
thank you so much yogita limaye joining us live from the Afghan capital