On June 15, the state-run Shargh newspaper published a report on child labor titled “Childhood on a Work Shift,” highlighting the painful conditions faced by child laborers in Iran. At the same time, on the occasion of the World Day Against Child Labour, a conference titled “Red Card to Child Labor” was held in Tehran. Unlike many official ceremonies, the event presented a bleak and alarming picture of the situation of child laborers in Iran. Statistics and remarks by experts attending the conference indicate that child labor is not merely a limited social problem but one of the most widespread manifestations of poverty, inequality, and the failure of support structures under Iran’s regime.
According to estimates presented at the conference, approximately 2 million children in Iran are engaged in labor. Even the speakers described this figure as a conservative estimate. The lack of transparent and reliable statistics has left the true scale of the child labor crisis shrouded in uncertainty. While a report by the Statistical Center of Iran in 2017 estimated that about 410,000 children between the ages of 10 and 17 were employed, social activists argue that this figure represents only a small fraction of reality, as many working children—especially those without identity documents or those who are migrants—are not recorded in any official statistics.
Child Laborers: The Hidden Face of Structural Poverty
Experts emphasized that the issue of child labor is not limited to a few children working on the streets. The phenomenon is a direct result of widespread household poverty, declining purchasing power, unemployment, migration, and the gradual collapse of social support systems.
According to studies cited at the conference, more than 60% of the fathers of working children are employed, yet their income is insufficient to meet the minimum needs of their families. Many of these families work in low-income and informal sectors and are compelled to send their children into the labor market to help support the household.
One of the most shocking statistics presented showed that 38% of working children began economic activity between the ages of five and seven—a period that should be devoted to education, play, and healthy childhood development.
The Identity Crisis Among Child Laborers
Another issue highlighted at the conference was the lack of identity documents among a large proportion of working children. According to the statistics presented, tens of percent of these children do not possess birth certificates, national identity cards, or residency documents. This situation not only restricts their access to education, healthcare, and social support services but effectively renders them invisible within the country’s official system—children who exist and work, yet remain absent from many statistics and policy discussions.
Reports also indicate that a significant proportion of working children are migrants. However, experts noted that under international conventions to which the Iranian regime is a party, access to fundamental children’s rights should not depend on nationality or immigration status.
Many Laws, Almost No Enforcement
One of the main themes of the conference was the deep gap between existing laws and reality. Although Iran has adopted dozens of laws, regulations, and policy documents concerning children’s welfare over the past decades, the situation of child laborers continues to deteriorate.
Experts believe that the primary problem is not a lack of legislation but rather the absence of political will and effective enforcement mechanisms. Various institutions—including the State Welfare Organization, the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Education, municipalities, and the Ministry of Interior—each bear part of the responsibility, yet in practice there is little accountability, and responsibility is continually shifted among agencies.
A clear example of this situation is child waste-picking. Although existing laws classify such work as a hazardous condition and among the worst forms of child labor, thousands of children continue to work in waste collection and sorting operations, while the profits generated by this system flow to contractors and affiliated economic networks.
A significant portion of public awareness regarding child labor is the result of efforts by non-governmental organizations. However, the absence of a national strategy, the lack of dedicated funding, and the shortage of transparent data have undermined effective efforts to address the crisis.
While official institutions speak of implementing various programs, no transparent reports have been released regarding their results. Even the targets set in development plans for reducing the number of child laborers remain unsupported by baseline data and cannot be meaningfully evaluated.
