Social Welfare
Year:2010 | Volume:9 | Issue:35|Papers Count:24

Objectives: The data reported in child poverty, have been making a motivation for more attention to study about it, almost from the beginning of this century. With similar motivation, this study followed by review, "Theoretical Principles of child poverty" to this path, provides areas for future research. Method: Historical and theoretical studies conducted around the child poverty with regard to results of empirical studies and experiences of countries engaged in this topic.Findings: The child poverty describes under 18 years old people deprivation of material resources, emotional and spiritual need for survival, development and progress less than 18 years is.Results: In the definition of child poverty, rather than focus only on per capita income of households, children's rights violations should be considered. With such a definition: half the world's children live in poverty. Most poor children live in rural areas. Also, more girls than boys are at risk of poverty.

Objective: Today the Countries identify values, principles, rules, norms of human rights and the solution of guarantee a, execution and supervision on these by collection of documents. Doctrines, Practices and Institutions that have had it under the title of the international human rights. According to this system. In light of the total international regulations related to human rights, has established a system of protection that with all of principles and Institutions trying to use People from the global common values and to ensure respect for human beings. Formation of this system and international consensus on the values, principles. Rules and human rights norms has preceded the Universalization of human rights successfully. The who in this special protection principle of children against behaviors violated their rights as the most fundamental principle in the field any policy-making about the children in the first place what extent identified in the global level and second place recognized in the positive law. Today, with economic and social changes. under the influence of religions and changing attitude toward human societies in the thinkers’ efforts and social reformers, has been changed the kind Approaches compared to the “Children and “childhood’. This normative and scientitic change in the type of approach to the children of the second half the 20th century, under the influence of principles. rules. standards and norms human rights, has improved a lot. In a process that the ban on discrimination against them in enjoyment of human rights, due to his childhood, and the other hand, the recognition of the specific protection principle of children due to their vulnerable situation, is positioned.Method: this study, which will be done in the explanatory-analysis method, with comparative approach, will use of the international documents that acting by international and regional organizations and national legislation. Findings: in the light of formation of the international human rights of children, special protection of the children, identified and accepting the world. Also this principle has been accepted in the constitution acts in most countries in the world against the Islamic republic of Iran constitution.Enforcing family responsibilities, differential crirninalization and special penalization are the most important aspects of the special protection of children in welfare, civil and criminal law.Results: identifying the principle of the special protection of children in the all human rights documents (general, special, public, obligatory and unobligatory) demonstrate the global recognizing of this principle in the normative level. The reforming of the constitution in many countries to support the principle of the child protections has gone through as the main strategic foundation in the differential legislative policy against behaviors to violate the rights of children. The acceptance of this principle in the Islamic republic of Iran constitution will impress on the process of transferring and integration of t international criteria about the protection of children in special Iran positive acts. With regard to the enacted all the Iran penal code with Islamic principles based on the fourth article of Islamic republic of Iran constitution and because of the immethodical practical Iranian state and parliament in conditional supplement on the international conventions. Iran’s penal law convergence with the globalization process of criminal law in the field of child protection against victimization face with obstacles and limitations. But situating the most mechanisms of penal protection of children against victimization in the realm of tazzer and preventive punishment and existing of elements change and expediency society in this realm and human viewpoints, science based and Expediency oriented in Islam jurisprudence and focusing the Iranian legislative institutions to Human Rights and comparative penal law Studies and ratifying and approving the international documents (including human rights and has a streak merely penal content) in protection of child victim (especially in recent years) are the capacity and the necessity of Iran’s penal law convergence with the globalization process of criminal law in the field of child protection against victimization.

Objectives: during recent years social determinants of health had been the most complex subject on the domain of health policy. The social determinants of health are social condition that people live and work and they affect the personal health, community health and social health and even the health pattern. The main object of this study is to review the studies witch related to the status of four structural social determinants of health including income, gender, education and ethnicity during 1379-1385 in Iranian children and the documentation of the result of these studies are according world health organization model.Method: In this descriptive study (review), studies had been searched with 28 keywords in Iranian electronically databases as such as Irandoc.ac.ir, www.iranmedex.com, www.sid.ir, www.magiran.com and many universities in Tehran. After passing several stages of screening, we found 40 studies related to gender and health, 16 studies related to income and health, 40 studies related to education and health and 6 studies related to ethnicity and health. Information of these researches were classified and described. R.M, Excel and SPSS were used in this study.Results: In the determinant of gender and health in childhood, the difference between two genders about weight and height of newborn, low birth weight and malnutrition was observed, but in dental caries, impaired vision and hearing, the deference was not significant. About mental health, mental disease and disorders also the result of studies were not similar but suicide attempting in girls was more reported.In the income determinant almost all the studies showed the more frequency in health problems is in the groups with lower income and it showed significant relation between income and health status. It showed inverse relation between household income and food consumption pattern and / or household calories consumption, also significant relation between income status and malnutrition and obesity, skull youth index, health behavior, weight of child and rate of dmf was observed. In the studies of mental health and income also the frequency of symptoms and mental disorders in low income groups and significant relationship between mental health and income was observed.In education determinant category, almost all educational interventions were effective. About literacy and health, prevalence of LBW neonate of mothers with lower education was higher and there is a significant relation between maternal education and child weight. However statistical significant relationship between maternal education and the period of breastfeeding was not found. The result of studies showed inverse statistical significant relationship between level of education (parents) and child malnutrition, overweight and obesity. Statistical significant relationship between father education and child obesity was also shown. In parasitic infections there was inverse statistical relation between level of education (parents) and hair pediculus, entrobiosis. Results of studies about mental health and education were not similar but the frequency of attempted suicide in the group with lower education was higher. In ethnicity determinant, there was a little studies and the results were showed the ethnicity difference in weight and height of neonate ,cloven lips and palate, malformation of neurotic tube in neonate, diarrhea.Conclusion: The health difference between two genders, the different income, educational level and different ethnicity observed. The result of this study could use in developing policy recommendations and suggest some principles to ground those policy choices.

Objectives: In designing poverty alleviation strategies, it is axiomatic to identify the poor. Insufficient or unreliable data about the deprived members of society is a primary obstacle in designing an effective poverty reduction policy. The role of the labour market is particularly important in providing decent jobs for every sector of population. Studying labour market structure enables policymakers to configure more effective targeting policies and social safety nets. Hence, the detailed study of the labour market structure is crucial to assess the poverty reduction effects of these privation dedicated programmes because the main source of poor peoples’ income derives from labour services and wages which in turn depends on available employment opportunities. The size and composition of the labour market are rnportant factors that affect the incidence and severity of poverty in every society. The dichotomous nature of developing countries – a subsistence sector, mainly located in the rural areas and a more advanced sector in the urban areas - is another barrier to provision of opportunities. Low productivity in one sector is the main source of economic disparity and deprivation. The consequences of this dualism are not restricted to the economic sectors but affect the entirety of social relations and the social fabric. Gender disparity explains another basic barrier to equal opportunity which in turn can be translated into different types of inequalities, including access to education and expertise.Methodology: As it is discussed, many factors shape the poverty profile in a developing society, including the place of living, type of employment, gender, and education. The main purpose of this study is to provide a clear picture of poverty incidence amongst different subgroups of the population in Iran. To this end, poverty within each population subgroup is calculated and decomposed into different socio-economic subgroups. For the first time in Iran, this study links the labour market structure with the socioeconomic characteristics of the rural and urban poor households. Using the 2006 household survey data, the labour force is categorized into three broad segments, public, private and the renter sectors. The public and private sectors are divided into formal and informal ones. Then, heads of household characteristics, including gender and education, are taken into account. This framework is used for both urban and rural areas. In this poverty profile children in poor families are calculated in each category or group of households.Findings: Results of this study are numerous and far-reaching. The outstanding findings in this abstract are as follows: The composition of the labour market shows that 76% of the jobs are created by the private sector, 20% offered by the public sector and 4% is offered by renters. Almost 50% of the labour force is engaged in the informal sector among which the overwhelming majority is the poor. 40% of the total labour force is active in the informal private sector while 36% of that is engaged with the formal private sector 17 percent of the total labour market lies in the formal public sector and 3% are active in the informal public sector! 10% of the household heads are women and 90% are men. 48.85% of the female household heads live in poverty while this figure for the male household heads is 30.35%. The overwhelming majority of the total children in poverty, 80.58%, live in male-headed-households engaged with the informal private sector while 8.62% of the poor children are living in male-headed-households active in the formal private sector. 4.35% of the child poverty occurs in the families with the female head active in private sector out of which 4.31% are active in the informal private sector. This picture of poverty incidence in Iran lays down an extremely grave set of challenges for the success of any economic reform.

Objective: The aim of measuring vulnerability of children to poverty is to estimate the probability 01 being poor according to the household’s head socioeconomic characteristics. The estimates of the vulnerability to poverty can be used as a guideline to the policymakers to allocate the public subsidies to the poor children and their families.Methodology: Children are at a higher risk of poverty than adults, regardless of place and time. Since they are not independent economic actors by themselves, they rely on the distribution of resources by their parents, household or community members to provide their basic needs. In this study, we use the logit model to measure degree of vulnerability of children to poverty in urban areas in Iran. Findings of this study can provide a guideline for subsidy targeting. Data used in this study is pooled micro-data of household expenditure surveys from 1983- 2007, collected by Statistical Center of Iran. Finding & results: This approach to identify the degree of vulnerability of children to poverty can be used as a reliable proxy and an alternative method to identify the children in poverty, once there is no comprehensive data bank on the household's well-being. Some of the findings show that the larger the size of the households and number of children, the higher is the degree of vulnerability of children to poverty. The level of education of the head of household is another important determinant of vulnerability of children to poverty. The higher is the education level of the household’s head; the lower is the children vulnerability to poverty. Employment status is another important determinant of vulnerability to poverty. Children living in the households whose heads are unemployed are more vulnerable to poverty than those otherwise. Age and gender of the head of households are two main determinants of children vulnerability.

Intuition: Poverty reduction should be seen as a part of a wider enterprise to establish a well-ordered and balanced society. Obviously, this target cannot be achieved overnight and it requires many different, consistent and harmonious efforts to attack the causes of inequity and deprivation from different angles. To guarantee less poverty in future means to tackle child poverty today. Children in poverty at present guarantee the persistence of poverty in the future, unless they are the main target of social protection programmes. Hence, the most effective approach to any poverty reduction effort is to tackle child poverty first. Malnourishment and under-nourishment, insufficient health care, and poor schooling, if there is any, are the main causes that breed poverty. Children living in a poor family have prime candidate potential for becoming the future poor. The descendants of the poor remain poor because they are deprived from basic nutrition, health care, and education. This cycle reproduces poverty and the victims end up in copiously documented ‘poverty traps’.Iran with young population, almost 25% below the age of 15, should take child poverty more seriously otherwise the future of the country would be in jeopardy. This study provides an account of the status of child poverty in Iran. The overall figure of child poverty is disaggregated into 30 provinces. Uneven development in different regions of the country is a source of noticeable differences in per capita income (consumption) in different provinces. Hence, poverty statistics show a discernible variation in poverty incidence in different areas. High poverty incidence rate in areas with rich natural resources reveals a basic policy failure plus the fact that poverty reduction programmes can be successful provided that there is a comprehensive, participatory and community-based approach to tackle the problem.Methodology: In this study micro-data collected through Iran Household Budget Survey (HBS) over 1999-2007 is used. The HBS was conducted on a provincially representative sample of close to 30,000 households. Absolute poverty incidence in 30 provinces is calculated and then the ratio of the children under 16 living in poor households to the total number of children is accounted for both in rural and urban areas. Findings: Although, the latest poverty incidence rate in Iran is around %30, child poverty incidence in some cases is markedly higher. For example poverty incidence in Sistan and Baluchestan province for the urban and rural areas are %70 in our sample, in 2007. Nevertheless, overall child poverty incidence in 2007 in the urban and rural areas of the country is %38 and %18, respectively. The lowest urban child poverty headcount rate of %17 occurs in Mazandaran and for the rural areas of %18 occurs in Mazandran, too. Child poverty incidence rates declined during the time frame of the study, while both the rates of poverty incidence and intensity are higher in the rural areas than the urban ones. The highest child poverty rate in Iran has been occurred in the eastern part of the country where was drought stricken region for eight consecutive years. Failure of the drought relief schemes led to massive migration which itself deepened the incidence of poverty.

Intuition: Poverty results in many different problems which adversely affect one's quality of life. Children build future of every society. The better development of the children, the better society in the future will be. Children in poverty are more vulnerable than the adults, because they are more dependent on the supports of the parents and their environments. The main aim of this study is to identify status of the children in poverty, which can provide a guideline for the policy makers and enabled them to tackle child poverty and to optimally design targeting schemes.Methodology: This study provides detailed picture of child poverty in 22 different districts of city of Tehran in 2008. To this end, Foster, Greer, Thorbecke (1984) poverty index is used. Child poverty is identified with their head of household's characteristics, including their education level, gender, age, and size of the household. Results and Findings: Some of the most important results of this study are as follows: The highest rate of child poverty locates in district 19 of Tehran and the lowest rate in district 3. Children at the households whose heads are deprived of higher education qualification with informal job, are more likely to be poor. The highest rate of child poverty occurs at the families whose heads are female, without higher education qualification and active in informal labor market. The rate of child poverty at the households whose heads have not higher education qualification is twice as those with the qualification.

Objectives: In recent years the manifestation of child abuse as a social disaster came into public attention with the help of public media and caused much controversy and various social reactions. It was against this background that in the past few years much endeavors has gone into the criminalization of different forms of this phenomenon by civil, sociological, psychological and criminological agencies. The criminalization of this social phenomenon due to its disastrous consequences in the form of maltreatment and abuse of the children necessitates the carrying out of this task in two major categories: firstly, revictimization of the child in turn becoming a delinquent which is a kind of response to being victimized. Putting aside the adverse victimization and criminological consequences of the child abuse and the necessity of combating them the human rights aspect of child abuse breaches their physical-moral and psychological wellbeing i.e. their human dignity. For this reason child abuse and its varied manifestations must defined in an express and doubtless manner in order to separate them from the reasonable measures necessary for their proper upbringing.Method: This article is written in descriptive-analytical form having used the existing criminological and sociological writings in Farsi and English. Findings: Research has revealed that the Iranian criminal law lacks a comprehensive definition of child abuse. For this reason criminal law has so far failed to provide the necessary safeguards for children against abuse. The boarders of child abuse and reasonable measures for their proper upbringing are blurred.Results: To condemn child abuse as a social phenomenon and its criminalization within criminal law involves providing a sociological-criminological definition of this phenomenon within Iranian society. As such not only duties of parents, guardians, and teachers and …. in providing care and attention for children and students are observed, children's dignity are also protected and safeguarded against different forms of abuse.

Objectives: child abuse is affected by several factors. The economic situation of the abused child's family is one of them. Poverty, as the lack of capabilities helping people to have a suitable life, plays a great role in defining their economic situations.This article is going to review the influence of some of the obstacles of the human capabilities like the family income, the kind of housing, locality of living and work of the children on child abuse, with a capability poverty approach.Methodology: This article is an excerpt from the results of a review about child abuse. Here, the results of the previous researches about this issue are presented and reviewed within the framework of the social structure's theory. This theory, to some extent, has succeeded in explaining the relation between the social situation, social problem and crime. It has insisted on the stability of kind of violence culture in between the low-income urban classes. Findings: The occurrence of child abuse is affected by capability poverty like family income, the kind of housing, locality of living and the children work. Almost, all the studies on the kind of abuse and neglect on children have confirmed that child abuse is more prevalent among poor families with lower economic condition than other classes. The stresses on people in low economic classes raise the probability of the happening of child abuse much more than middle and high classes. There is a direct relation between the situation of people's house and family capability poverty. In most families with economic capability poverty, the house is rental, small sized, unsuitable, and crowded. The results of the studies confirm that child abuse is more prevalent in families living in such houses. Various studies have shown that in some areas such as low income neighborhoods or suburbs, the prevalence of social problems and crime is more than other localities.This phenomenon has several reasons: First, the people living in the same locality are similar in cultural aspects, ethical disciplines, and beliefs and they are influenced by each other. On the other hand, the outdoor abuses are related to the locality of life of the person and its environmental variations. Researches show that child abuse is more prevalent in mentioned localities. In spite of the laws forbidding the work of children under 15 (79th article of work law in Iran), their existence in the job marketing is noticeable. Although officials have not reported the exact number of employed people between the ages of 9 and 14, the rate between the employed children at the ages of 10 to 14 to the entire population of this age is reported as 2.75 percent. In spite of it, there are many clues for employment of much more children in official and unofficial job marketing. These children are seriously in risk of being abused by adults because there is the least protection and observation at their work location. Results: In poor families, it is impossible or difficult to be met the basic minimum needs of children by their parents. Moreover, because of the priority for obtaining the least income for surviving the family, neglect is significantly more prevalent than middle and high-income families. Poverty as a factor influencing the kind and situation of house can prepare the way for child abuse by the low quality of the house or the feeling of insecurity because of rental housing. All the family living in single room is one of the most potential reasons for sexual abuse. A repeated movement reduces the potential protection in the neighborhood they have lived in for a long time and raises the outdoor risks for children. Poor families are forced to live in less regular areas to spend less on housing. In these neighborhoods there is no urban service. Usually the access to educational and health services is hard or in low quality, so the children are deprived of the least protections. Soon entering to job marketing makes them predisposed to be offended so easily because they do not have the ability to protect themselves from the risks. Finally, although poverty is not the only factor explaining child abuse, from different aspects it is one of the most important ones.

Objective: Social problems prohibit accomplishment of social development, or at least delay its process. Child labor is one of the social problems. Poverty has a substantial effect in creation and stability of child labor. In this study, we surveyed correlations between child labor and social development at two distinct times to find the direction of their relationship.Method: This is a cross-lagged panel study. Among all of the world countries, 34 countries in different levels of development, that their child labor statistics and social development index were available at 2000 and 2006, was chosen. Findings: Indices of life expectancy at birth, rate of urban population with access to improved sanitation and rate of literate people over 15 years old, had a negative and significant relation with rate of child labor and rate of children under weight for age under 5 and rate of people with 1$ a day, had a positive and significant relation with rate of child labor, but there was not any relation between Gini index and rate of child labor. In the cross-lagged, relations between rate of child labor at 2000 and social development index at 2006 on one hand, and between social development index at 2000 and rate of child labor at 2006 on the other hand, were negative and significant. The difference between these two correlations (-0.78 and -0.87, respectively) was not significant. Results: It could not be said surely that the rate of child labor at 2000 affects social development index at 2006, directly. Also it could not be claimed surely that social development index at 2000 and affects rate of child labor at 2006. But, these relations are indirect. In this study, Poverty, also, is affirmed as main factor of child labor. The more developed a country is, the less child labor a country has, but the direction of this relation is unknown yet.

Objective: Regarding the studies on street children and necessity of evidence based decision making to use the results of studies and planning for purposive studies in future seems a priority. This study tries to classify and evaluate these studies on economic situation of street children in Iran in recent decade according to their strengths and weaknesses in order to use their results in policy making and planning for street children. Method: We used systematic review method in this study. By searching Iranian and international databases, many universities and related organizations in Iran, we found 48 researches and after evaluating their quality by a researcher made quality evaluation form, findings of 40 researches were classified, described and analyzed.Findings: Meta analysis (weighted average) of results of studies shows that 90/6% of street children are boys. %82/9 is illiterate or has an education level under high school. %85 has relationship with their families and %85/3 is come from families with more than 5 persons. %91/3 of their fathers and %85/5 of their mothers are illiterate or have under high school education. %80/9 of their families has incomes less than 1000,000 Rials and about %80/18 of children have a kind of job. Some results like low family income and education, high prevalence of working in streets and relationship of most children with their families reveal Relationship between family poverty and becoming a street child. Conclusion: The studies reviewed are mainly focused on epidemiologic properties, etiological factors and outcomes of problem of street children. Studies are mainly descriptive and the rare analytic studies suffer from methodological problems. Some findings of epidemiological properties of street children is in coordination with primary percepts regarding them but because of the few sample size or methodological weaknesses of analytical studies, obtaining net results about etiological factors, outcomes and interventions’ evaluation is difficult. Although a few analytic studies have focused on relationship between poverty and becoming street child, according to high prevalence of economic factors of children and their families, it seems that poverty is an important factor for becoming street child.

Introduction: Since lack of strategies and activities based on situation analysis for promotion of health and development in Iranian children has always been an important and serious challenge in this field of work, the main objective of the study, on the basis of which the present manuscript was written was to develop a comprehensive strategic analysis (SWOT analysis) of the present situation in Iran in terms of early childhood development, leading to strategies and activities based on its results, derived from maximal professional consensus among experts and heads of related governmental and non-governmental organizations. Materials and Methods: This was part of a larger qualitative study which was carried out in five stages, during which the first pre-draft, second pre-draft, first, second and third (final) drafts of a comprehensive plan for promotion of development in Iranian children were developed respectively. One important section of the plan consisted of the situational analysis and another, included recommended strategies based on the situation analysis. The study population was the population of experts and executive managers of governmental and nongovernmental organizations dealing with child health, care and development in the country and the Delphi procedure as well as focus group discussions were the main methods for gathering information. According to qualitative study protocols, we tried to choose the best and most knowledgeable people, meeting the inclusion criteria, as the sample for this study. Results: By carrying out a SWOT analysis, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in this field of work in the country have been identified and confirmed by experts and executive managers cooperating in this study, after which in order to overcome the present challenges 2 goals, 5 objectives, 19 strategies, and several number of activities have been suggested. Discussion: The authors recommend that the four main ministries dealing with child health, care and development in Iran, that is the ministries of Health, Welfare, Education, and Higher Education and Science, on behalf of their mission and legal responsibilities, give serious attention to the results of the present situation analysis which has been established and approved by a significant group of experts or managers somehow related to childhood issues in the country, and consequently take effective steps for implementing their strategic recommendations, at the national level.