Iran: 80% Of Child Laborers On Streets To Help Impoverished Families
The Head of Iran’s Social Workers Association said poverty is the cause of 80% of Iran’s child laborers.
According to the state-run ISNA News Agency, Seyed Hassan Moussavi Chelek, Head of Iran’s Social Workers Association said most of the child laborers have an addict in their family or belong to dysfunctional families.
Moussavi Chelek said that the plight of child laborers will increase if the Social Security system is not changed.
“Over 80% of the child laborers are in touch with their families,” Moussavi Chelek said in the interview with ISNA, implying that they are not beggars for mafia-like criminal groups.
“Usually there are three to four times more boys in the streets than girls,” the Head of Iran’s Social Workers Association added.
Iran’s child laborers victim of disease and malnutrition
Moussavi Chelek said that many of the child laborers are infected with HIV, according to figures from 2013. He also added that they are vulnerable to addiction, smoking, drinking and street violence, including sexual abuse.
“Child laborers are deprived of education, suffer from malnutrition, skin diseases, and other digestion and food deprivation problems. They also suffer from psychological problems,” Moussavi Chelek said.
The Head of Iran’s Social Workers Association also implied that these child laborers have always been neglected by the government.
The board of directors of the Social Commission of the Majlis said in 2017 that the number of child laborers in Iran, according to most unofficial estimates, was between 3 and 7 million.
30% of Iran’s population living in absolute poverty
In a report published by the state-run ISNA on June 2, the Head of the Social Security Organization Research Institute said 30% of the population are living in absolute poverty according to figures from 2017 to 2019. This is while from 2013 to 2017, only 15% of Iran’s population were living in absolute poverty.
In a report published on June 4 by the state-run Tejarat News website, Mehdi Yusefkhani, the Head of Tehran’s Bird and Fish Traders Union said the production of poultry has declined making chicken scraps and organs more scarce. Store owners in Tehran said that chicken scraps and organs including its wings, feet, heart, liver, gizzard and even its bones have become scarce. Due to the increase in inflation, demands for chicken scraps and organs, rather than chicken meat, have grown.
Economic problems directly affect the lives of the underprivileged, marginalized, and working-class families, and the first victims of this violence are children who are forced to leave school and eventually become employed in the labor market.
The regime has turned a blind eye to this growing tragedy. Despite the regime’s claims of championing the poor, regime elites live a life of luxury in Tehran’s Lavasan region, dubbed the “Beverly Hills of Iran”.
