Shadi Sabouri
The Iranian society today works exactly according to the Conflict Theory. The theory which gains its reputation from the works by German sociologist Karl Marx claims that society consists of a binary with regards to its social classes, namely the wealthy and the poor. The two groups are eternally in conflict, since while the former tries to maintain their status due to their interests, the latter strives to disrupt it and get their share of wealth and life facilities. According to what Marx asserts, such class conflicts in society has their roots in economy as the infrastructure, with the rest in the list of social establishments – such as education and politics – playing the supra-structural roles. In case an economy shifts its direction, changes might also appear in other establishments. Marx explains human beings’ stages in history according to economical systems.
Based on this theory, the capitalist class induces teachings to retain its social status quo which calls on the poor working class to tolerate problems and difficulties in the hope of primary life facilities. Under such circumstances, children from weak and low-income families are forced to work in difficult social conditions in their early ages in order to survive and keep up to the life competition. Children are, thus, labored in much inappropriate conditions in terms of nutrition, health and psychological standards. This dreadful situation adds to a thousand other dangers they already might have faced on the streets and at work, thus leading both the society and the kids themselves toward an unknown future, not limited to chances of drug addiction, begging, prostitution and various criminal activities. Child Labour results in a certain lack of caring, emotions and love for the children, thus making it crucial to find definite solutions to the issues.
Child Labour ranks among the fundamental issues in Iran’s social structure. A short glance at the painful conditions of street and labour children in Iran shows that, instead of healing the problem, the government in Iran acts very much passively, sympathetically providing little monetary contributions that, because of their inconsistent and temporary nature, bear no significant advantage but further adds salt to the injury considering their own promotion of destitution. Still, the bigger problem exists that authorities lack profound expert prospects in regard to the issue, and while not decisive about uprooting it, the administration endlessly fails to address the case with every organization passing the responsibility to the next in queue. “We lack comprehensive plans to bring about change in the social contexts these children are raised in,” says Javid Sobhani, an Iranian children’s tights activist, according to semi-official JamNews
Based on a 1995 statistics released by the International Labour Organization, %71.4 of children between 10 and 14 years old are economically active in Iran. Unfortunately, the public view regarding working children is nothing close to positive or true, a point which amounts to a humiliating manner in the behavior of individuals. Such an idea reaffirms the persisting cultural gap between the views of the Iranian authority and accepted norms of an international community. In his 1690s’ Essay on the Poor Law, John Locke suggests that “working schools” be set up in each parish in England for poor children “from infancy,” that is, when they are three to fourteen years old. They would not be eager enough to go for work afterwards. Still, four centuries after his treatise, Iran struggles as to which organization should be in charge for taking care of the children. Though there are parliamentary and administrative laws in place, no department would take the responsibility; thus, the fragile group has to enter the job market before they reach legal age, failing as such to naturally nurture their social, psychological and physical aspects.
No precise data exist to date to explain the qualitative or quantitative status of the children working or on the streets in Iran. Results of a 1985 statistics conducted by the Statistical Center of Iran show that 1.7 million children were victims of child labour at the time. Eight years since the release of the study considered to be the first and only survey of its kind, numbers are estimated to have reached two million considering the rise in the country’s economic difficulties, while some social pathologists put that number at over three million.
An extensive research conducted by the State Welfare Organization of Iran in 2012 found that children came to the streets between the ages of 4 to 18, while 10-year-old made up the largest group among street children. According to the survey, most children worked typical jobs including as hawkers (%73.2), porters and servants (%8.6), scavengers and bread collectors (%9.6), and beggars (%5.7), with few of them (2%) drug trafficking, pick pocketing or ending up as prostitutes.
The research which was entitled The Plan for Analysis of Dangerous Behaviors of Street-and-Labour Children, shows that children’s daily income is 230,000 Iranian rials (≈ $18.7 to $20.6 at the time). Economic, social, cultural (physical abuse, violence, etc.) and family-related issues as well as defective laws are among the most serious problems working children face today. Due to authorities’ indifference, the children remain vulnerable to a plethora of social transgressions for which they are not to blame.
Since 1998, countless attempts have been made to collect working and street children, all to no avail. Despite the money and some further complications for the children, the government wouldn’t do any good unless they take the courage to bring about change in the resource and profit structure and find their way through by creating occupation for the adult population as the sole resolution to cut down on poverty levels. The destiny of children of work depends heavily on the administration’s policies regarding the life quality of adults. No solution would work in truth until there comes a time when change came over the lives of poorly-paid families with poor or no protection.
