opinion article

The unprecedented and unconvincing decision of the last thirty years was in fact not so strange or unexpected. In fact, it is decisions made rationally, logically and persuasively are decisions that bring forth shock and bewilderment.

Many economically and socially failed projects can be named during Ahmadinejad’s presidency that have brought nothing but poverty, destitution and the further devastation of the middle class resulting in its greater shrinkage. It seems that now has come the time to remove all impediments to uncontrolled population growth and larger family sizes. It is now clear that the policy to increase the country population enjoys the support of the supreme leader of the Islamic regime who last week criticized the family planning policies of the country that were pursued prior to Ahmadinejad’s administrations.

In one of recent issues, the conservative daily Resalat wrote about the need to increase the population. “Today’s Iran needs to have a population of over 150 million people to become powerful,” it wrote.

Mohammad Ismail Motlagh, the director general of the family planning office at the ministry of the interior confirmed the removal of family planning and the allocation of a special budget for the ministry of health for this purpose. “In 2011, the supreme leader of the Islamic republic had issued guidance regarding increasing the population of the country,” he said. “Rather than engaging in family planning, the ministry of health shall focus on the health of the family, mothers, new born children and child bearing,” he continued.

Majlis representatives too have joined this chorus and have gathered 100 signatures for a bill that over rules the law that had been passed to manage population growth and family planning and have argued that the rules contradicted religious principles and instructions.

But in a society where questioning anything is viewed as the biggest crime and can send anyone to prison and result in deprivation, and where officials are not specialists but mere executioners, what response can decision makers have to the unemployment statistics that are published by Iran’s statistical center? What do they have to say about the millions of lawsuits in which the crimes are caused by poverty? [It should be noted that to pale the issue of unemployment in the country, Iran’s statistical center counts individuals who work for a single hour during the day as being employed.] Officials have announced unemployment in 2011 to be 3.12 percent. That figure stood at 1.14 for the following winter. Unemployment among the youth of ages 15 to 24 is said to be between 5.26 percent in 2011 while women’s share is 9.20 percent. But who is accountable for these issues?

In this regard, the planning deputy at the ministry of industries, mines and trade, Fatemi Amin has said, “Last year 200 industrial units were shut down because of the implementation of the new subsidies law.”

Speaking to Hamshahri newspaper, Mousa Reza Servati, a Majlis member of the planning and budget committee, echoed the problem and said, “In the last census, if a person worked just for one hour during the week, he would be considered employed. So far, no accurate and clear statistics on the number of unemployment among the youth has been published by the government. This is happening while the government has the responsibility of providing the Majlis with a statistical book on the state of the country every year so that law makers can do their job based on the realities of the country and society. Today, most contacts with members of parliament are made for the purpose of getting a job and then for a loan.”

“On the days that Majlis representatives reserve for meeting their constituents, 80 percent of the time is spent on hearing the complaints of people because of unemployment. Today, the very limited number of jobs that are available are given out through special connections and requests. In some cases, those who can employ someone receive money for doing it,” he continued.

With this picture, one is invariably driven to ask, what is the purpose of yet increasing this young but unemployed, poor and future-less population in a society that is crisis ridden not just today, but will continue to remain so in the future.

While the government should be putting its energy and resources into proper planning for social, economic, cultural, educational, etc training of the future generations, one wonders why it is not doing it.

Today, there are 2 million working children in the country who are under threat of physical, sexual and addiction issues. According to Khosro Salehi a children’s rights activist, “While we have some 2 million children who work in this country, officials statistics hide this situation and reality from public view.”

In the last days of the Persian calendar year 1390 (March 2012) Assadollah Jami, the director general of crime prevention in the judiciary announced the presence of 20 million lawsuits in court houses across the country in which most of the crimes in them were related to drugs, theft and divorce. Specialists have been pointing the figure of these social ills on economic conditions and poverty among the public. Ali Movayedi, the head of the police unit on drug related issues also recently said, “Seventy percent of the prison population of Iran is made up of prisoners who come from very poor and destitute families.”

So with this picture in mind, one is bound to think or ask, what is the reason for increasing the 75 million population which will bring nothing but more poverty, unemployment, addiction, prostitution etc. Why are the cries of children not heard? The knowledgeable and hard working officials of this country in fact do hear the cries of these children; they have simply chosen to ignore them.

Parvin Bakhtiarnejad
Source: Roozonline