Child Labor: The Small Victims of Poverty

On the occasion of June 12, World Day Against Child Labor, the newspapers Hamdeli, Shahrvand, and Ebtekar have reports about the situation of these children in Iran. Hamdeli emphasizes that "work is not a conscious and voluntary choice for children," stating: "Child laborers, whether willingly or unwillingly, are deprived of education due to the overlap of work and study, and their safety, health, and growth are endangered." It continues: "Child laborers have no time for play, joy, or rest and are employed for various forms of trafficking and hard, harmful activities; they are sexually abused in the workplace; work seriously harms their mental and physical health and prevents them from achieving their true social status in the future." Shahrvand, in its front page titled "Small Victims of Poverty," reports: "The number of child laborers in Iran is increasing." According to this newspaper, "two million children work in Iran," and "30 percent of child laborers are those who do not attend school." Soraya Azizpanah, a member of the Child Rights Support Association and a child rights activist, told Shahrvand: "The harsh economic conditions, created by inflation and the fall in oil prices, have led lower-income families to withdraw their children from the educational system and send them to workshops and the streets; this is not the families' fault." Ebtekar, in a report titled "Children Without the Color of Childhood," writes: "From morning to night, we see children in the city whose rights as outlined in international and domestic laws are completely ignored," adding that "there are even children who are employed in harder jobs. Children who, away from the eyes of any living being, work in brick kilns, production workshops, etc., not only subject their frail bodies to hard labor but also miss out on their childhood."