The Shadow of Corona Weighs Heaviest on Working Children

The coronavirus pandemic is making itself felt everywhere; from legislative halls to the pre-Nowruz markets. The only thing that hasn’t changed is children scavenging through trash bins and selling flowers and washing windows at intersections.

Streets have emptied, there’s no sign of the Esfand rush, markets and shopping centers are nearly deserted, Haft-Sin displays and goldfish bowls are set up but without crowds around them. Corona has cast a shadow over everything except children who continue to roam behind red lights and at intersections with flowers in hand, gum in hand, tissues in hand, rue in hand.

So far, no reports have been published of children contracting the coronavirus, and there have been no child deaths among those who died from corona. However, no medical research has proven that children are immune from contracting this virus.

A board member of the Society for Protection of Children’s Rights has called for greater attention to hygiene, health, education, and housing conditions of street children engaged in waste collection.

Mina Jondaghi says that children who scavenge for waste and those who peddle on streets or in the metro move around the city without masks and gloves, have poor nutrition, and their living quarters are near garbage dumps.

The ILNA news agency quotes this activist as saying: “On one hand, given their type of nutrition, insufficient rest, and exposure to various stresses and psychological pressures, these children are more vulnerable to disease. If these children contract the illness, due to heavy treatment costs and problems accepting children without identity documents, they have no opportunity to seek medical care.”

Mina Jondaghi has called for the Welfare Organization’s attention to provide shelter for homeless and cardboard-dwelling children and necessary support for them, and said: “These children are present in the city streets every day, but their connection with society is very limited.”

Earlier, the CEO of the Society for Protection of Children’s Rights had also warned about the danger threatening working and street children. Farshid Yazdani told ILNA news agency last week: “Children and adults who make a living by selling in the metro, due to their extensive contact with society and presence in public places, are exposed to threat and danger.”

Yazdani, while condemning child labor, asked the government to provide hygiene supplies, gloves, disinfectants, and masks free of charge to this segment.

For working children, corona and non-corona make no difference

So far, no organized and widespread efforts have been made to protect working and street children against the coronavirus pandemic. Only civil and non-governmental organizations such as Talou Society, Imam Ali Society, and the Society for Defense of Working and Street Children have spontaneously undertaken measures to protect working and street children from the coronavirus.

Imam Ali Society, in a meeting of its crisis management committee held on February 23, decided to ask responsible bodies to compel contractors to refrain from using children during this period.

Talou Society, in cooperation with the Red Crescent Organization and other NGOs, has distributed hygiene packages in the Darvazegh area of Tehran.

Amirhassan Mirbahari, a member of the Society for Defense of Working and Street Children, tells DW Farsi: “Unfortunately, I myself can personally say that I have not witnessed strike operations to disinfect the streets and centers where children are exposed. For example, essential supplies for working children, especially those in the waste recycling sector, such as safe gloves, appropriate masks, and disinfectants, which should be quickly delivered to children without any charge in these circumstances, or measures to prevent and treat children who themselves or their families become infected, either no statistics exist or no significant operations exist.”

This child rights activist says that in addition to the supplies needed by this group of children, proper information dissemination to this group is also of particular importance because these children have less access to correct and accurate information, and what they receive is mostly yellow journalism and often frightening news that has no proper basis.

I asked Mr. Mirbahari whether the Society for Defense of Working and Street Children has contacted the employers of working children to ask them to send these children less frequently to public and dangerous places during the coronavirus outbreak.

Amirhassan Mirbahari said: “We have limited access to employers, and the reality is that the number of working children is much larger and more extensive than what we can contact in civil organization projects, and consequently this requires larger-scale work, for example, by the Welfare Organization in Iran.”

The Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency, IRNA, in a report on this issue wrote: “Based on data from the Strategic Studies Center of the Ministry of Labor, out of approximately 9 million children aged 10 to 17, 409,000 children have been identified as active in or seeking work in the country, which is directly related to poverty in families, and their main work in Iran includes peddling, flower selling, fortune telling, and waste collection.”

These are of course only identified working children. Since a significant number of working children consist of undocumented Afghan children or those with Iranian mothers, it can be assumed that the actual number of these children is much higher than the officially announced figures.

In the throes of the coronavirus pandemic, working children with rue in hand continue to wash car windows and collect trash bags. The shadow of the corona epidemic has been so heavy that it has affected Nowruz and the atmosphere of Esfand streets, but apparently it has brought no change to the daily lives of working and street children.

Source: DW