Official: Most Contacts with Social Emergency Services Relate to Child Abuse

An expert responsible for the social emergency services of Iran’s Welfare Organization stated that child abuse ranks first among contacts with social emergency services. Statistics on spousal abuse and divorce are also alarming.

In the radio program “Social Dialogue,” the head of social emergency services at the Welfare Organization provided explanations regarding social harms, their causes, and the government’s performance in this field.

According to Amneh Samavat, the most contacts received by this state institution relate to child abuse.

She emphasized that this problem is not only caused by social harms, but also lack of awareness among adults and absence of parenting skills play a significant role in this area.

Samavat did not provide statistics and figures, but about a year ago, the head of Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization reported a 12.5 percent increase in child abuse in the Islamic Republic.

According to Abbas Mosjeddi Arani, in 2019, 2,488 cases were referred to the centers of this organization, which represents “a 12.5 percent increase compared to the previous year.”

This official also reported high statistics on spousal abuse. According to him, in 2019, a total of 85,420 cases of spousal abuse were reported to the Legal Medicine Organization.

Based on statistics from the Welfare Organization, in 2019, approximately 90 percent of contacts were in the field of spousal abuse.

Divorce, Another Social Problem

High divorce statistics in recent years have consistently sounded alarm bells for officials, but significant measures have not yet been taken in this regard.

Amneh Samavat in the radio interview identified the lack of pre-marriage skills training for couples as one of the most important factors affecting the increase in divorce rates.

The expert in charge of social emergency services at the Welfare Organization stated: “Social harms are chain-like, and with the increase of one social harm, other harms also increase. For example, with increased addiction and economic and livelihood problems, divorce also increases.”

The Role of Official Authorities

Amneh Samavat continued, stating that with the launch of the 123 social emergency line in the field of preventing social harms, “effective measures” have been taken and “based on available statistics in recent years, we have witnessed an increase in social emergency services.”

While referring to the necessity of building public trust in the services provided by support institutions, she emphasized that identifying social harms based on modern methods such as expert research and training skills related to prevention can play an effective role in reducing social harms.

Social affairs experts constantly emphasize that arbitrary and unplanned traditionalist promotion of marriage or childbearing causes more problems in society whose damages are irreparable.

In Iran, official authorities have carried out and continue to carry out considerable activities in this regard, without having provided the necessary economic and social conditions for it.

Source: DW