Mohamed Haidary, the head of the Infant Health Department at the Ministry of Health said that 8.27 infants die per every 1,000 infants born in Iran due to poverty. This means that 10,000 children die every year out of 1.4 million children born.
In an interview with the state-run IRNA news agency, Haidari said that the southeast province of Sistan and Baluchestan, southern province of Hormozgan, western province of Kermanshah and the southeast province of Kerman accounted for the most infant deaths in Iran due to low levels of health education, economic poverty and poor care during pregnancy. “In these provinces, due to the low level of health literacy, economic poverty and lack of prenatal care, newborns die at birth,” he added.
Poverty running rampant
More Iranians are living in poverty thanks to a spiraling economic situation and their monthly income not rising to meet inflation, according to a study published by the Iranian parliament’s Research Center. The poverty line in Iran is currently set at a monthly income of around 28 million rials for a family of four, which equates to roughly $233 based on the free market exchange rate or $480 based on the Iranian government’s artificial exchange rate recorded in the upcoming government budget.
This news means that compared with spring 2017, 22 per cent more people are living under the poverty line in the greater Tehran region. Of course, it is not just Tehran. Many other large cities have seen more people fall below the poverty line as their purchasing power has declined. More worrying, the Iranian parliament’s Research Center’s report indicates that rural areas appear to be more affected by the poverty crisis than cities, something that is quite unusual.
The report said that Sistan and Baluchistan and Kerman as the two poorest provinces in the country. According to this study, in 2016, 38.31 percent of the population of Sistan and Baluchistan, or around 1.232 million people, lived in absolute poverty. The neighboring province of Kerman was second worse off, where 32.90 percent of the population, or around 1.311 million people, live in absolute poverty.
The increase in wages has been insignificant and is nowhere near enough to combat massive inflation and improve the purchasing power of ordinary people. Many Iranians have been unable to buy necessities, as they’ve soared in price as a result of the falling national currency. The neighboring province of Kerman was second worse off, where 32.90 percent of the population, or around 1.311 million people, live in absolute poverty.
The increase in wages has been insignificant and is nowhere near enough to combat massive inflation and improve the purchasing power of ordinary people. Many Iranians have been unable to buy necessities, as they’ve soared in price as a result of the falling national currency. Official statistics on the extent of poverty in Iran vary. The official number is usually given as 35% but on March 11, Shahab Naderi, the Parliament Representative from a town in Kurdistan Province said that 80% lived under the line of poverty in Iran.
In August, citing official numbers, Mohsen Hashemi, the Head of the Tehran City Council said that one third of Iranians lived under the line of poverty while one tenth lived under the “line of absolute poverty”.
