An official: Most calls to the social emergency are related to child abuse

An expert in charge of social emergencies at the Iranian Welfare Organization said that child abuse is the number one cause of calls to social emergencies. The statistics on spousal abuse and divorce are also worrying.

On the "Social Dialogue" radio program, the head of the Social Emergency Department of the Welfare Organization provided explanations about social harms, the factors that cause them, and the government's performance in this area.

According to Amina Samawat, most of the calls made to this government institution are related to child abuse.

He emphasized that this problem is not only caused by social harm, but also by adults' lack of awareness and lack of parenting skills.

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

According to Abbas Masjedi Arani, in 2019, 2,488 cases were referred to the organization's centers, which is "a 12.5 percent increase compared to the previous year."

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

According to statistics from the Welfare Organization, in 2019, about 90 percent of calls were about spousal abuse.

Divorce, another social problem

The high divorce rate in recent years has always raised alarm bells for officials, but so far no significant action has been taken in this regard.

In a radio interview, Amina Samawat cited the lack of premarital skills training for couples as one of the most important reasons for the increase in divorce rates.

The expert in charge of social emergencies at the Welfare Organization stated: "Social harms are chained, and as one social harm increases, other harms also increase. For example, as addiction and economic and livelihood problems increase, divorce also increases."

The role of official authorities

Amina Samawat continued by saying that with the launch of the 123 social emergency line, "effective measures" have been taken in the field of preventing social harm, and "based on available statistics, we are witnessing an increase in social emergency services in the last few years."

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

Social affairs experts always emphasize that the arbitrary and unplanned promotion of traditionalists to marry or have more children causes problems in society whose losses cannot be compensated.

In Iran, official authorities have done and are doing a lot of work in this regard, without providing the economic and social conditions for it.

Source: DW