Population Day 2

Abdul Wahid, one of 10 children of an Afghan electrician, had little education and few job prospects by the time he turned 18. Instead, he joined the Taliban, where he says he found not only a source of income but respect. “My life got better,” said Wahid, who wound up in Pul-e-Charkhi Prison outside Kabul after he was caught helping wire a car bomb. In many developing countries, runaway population growth has created vast ranks of restless young men, whose frustrated ambitions are sometimes the seeds of violence.