Iran: difficulties imposed on deprived children due to poverty

Children forced to work in Iran due to growing poverty

A short glance at a chart published in the state ‘Ebtekar’ daily in Iran.

 Poverty is the main element behind the growing number of homeless children.

Education: 80% of Iran’s homeless children are illiterate and have only finished middle school

Parent’s Education: 91% of their parents are illiterate or only have elementary education

Type of Work for Children: 80% of homeless children resort to street vending, working as lackeys or apprentices, and …

Working Children’s Salary: between 60,000 to 1.5 million rials ($2 to $50) a month

Family Conditions: 80% are in contact with their families, 6.3% lack any parents

Parents’ Jobs: 23% of the fathers are unemployed or have low-income jobs, and 70% of the mothers are housewives.

Family Income: less than 1 million rials a month (around $30)

Family Separation: 30% of these children are homeless due to divorces

Drug Addiction: 56% of these children have drug addicts in their families

Parents’ Prison Records: 20% of homeless children’s family members have prison records

Physical & Psychological Abuse: 50% of these children face physical abuse

Sexual Abuse: 6 to 27% are faced with sexual abuse

Number of Family Members: more than five

 Working in contaminated areas leaves children facing various types of illnesses, lack of hygiene and malnutrition. This also makes them vulnerable in the face of various types of social threats.

AIDS is one of the results of the mullahs’ regime for working children in Iran. The regime goes the limits to place a lid on these news reports.

“The spread of HIV/AIDS amongst working children is 40 times higher than the average HIV/AIDS spread rates in the society,” the state ISNA news agency cited Hygiene Minister Hassan Hashemi saying on 1 December 2013. “Five percent of working children are diagnosed with AIDS, meaning fourty times the growth rate of this illness amongst the society. These are very alarming numbers.”

 This is the cruelty imposed on Iran’s families and children by the corrupt regime sitting on the throne in Tehran. Due to extreme poverty, these families have been forced to send their children into the workforce. The regime brazenly dispatches its agents in various cities to round up these children, under the pretext that they tarnish the image of urban areas. This eliminates the very little source of income these children and their family have. In response, however, there are zealous and courageous people who on most occasions help these children and provide them shelter from the harassment imposed by state agents.