Child Labor On Rise In Iran Amidst Poverty Crisis

Iran's Parliament Research Center has released a report highlighting an alarming rise in the number of working children.

The report indicates that 15% of the child population is now engaged in labor activities. At least 10% of working children do not have the opportunity to attend school, depriving them of essential educational opportunities.

While the exact number of working children in Iran remains undisclosed, the Ministry of Labor indicated that in 2017, out of nine million Iranian children, 499,000 were considered "active," signifying that nearly half a million children in the country were either engaged in labor or searching for work.

The report suggests that the population of working children has now reached approximately one million and 350,000 individuals, based on an estimated 15% involvement in child labor.

The primary reason attributed to the growing phenomenon of child labor is "household poverty" which forces children to work to support their families' financial needs.

The report underscores that child labor is prohibited and criminalized by both international and domestic laws, obliging the government to implement necessary measures to address and reduce this issue. However, monitoring and preventing child labor have proven to be challenging, particularly in cases of household work, labor in difficult and unsupervised areas, illegal activities like drug trafficking, and instances of sexual abuse of children.