Unfortunately, it's nothing new. They have been selling children (girls mostly) to pay back debt or to settle blood-feuds for centuries. It's called Baad. Clearly, the economic meltdown has increased the tempo, but when you are dirt poor and you keep popping out kids... If we had given Afghan women access to birth control in 2001, the TB would not be in power today. Giving women the power to choose when/if to have children is the ultimate social engineering tool.