One million Iraqi children are deprived of food, health and education

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[size=52]One million Iraqi children are deprived of food, health and education[/size]

[size=45]In statements that reflect the enormity of the crises suffered by hundreds of thousands of children in Iraq, in light of the increasing frequency of family and community violence against them, and in a country where the poverty rate exceeds 20 percent of the population.[/size]
[size=45]A spokesman for the Ministry of Planning, Abdul Zahra Al-Hindawi, confirmed, on Thursday, that children represent a community segment of approximately 40%, which is a fragile segment affected by the difficult conditions of the country in recent years represented by terrorism, epidemics and economic crises, which negatively affected them.[/size]
[size=45]Deprivation, poverty and employment[/size]
[size=45]In statements to the Iraqi official newspaper, he stated that “one million children suffer from deprivation of food, health and education, in addition to putting 5% of them in work, and this also explains the violence that children are exposed to in society,” considering that “poverty is the main reason for pushing families her children to work.[/size]
[size=45]The role of parliament[/size]
[size=45]For her part, the head of the Parliamentary Women, Family and Childhood Committee, Donia Al-Shammari, said, "We focus on laws that are in the interest of the child and everything that positively affects his education, and what prevents his employment due to the economic factor of some families."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Shammari added, to the official newspaper, that “Article 52 of the budget approved granting a child within families covered by social care an amount of 30 thousand dinars for attending school,” usually as “an encouraging factor for families to oblige their children to education.”[/size]
[size=45]Experts warn that the increasing frequency of child labor and the practice of violence against them in family and community environments will result in a series of security, developmental and social crises due to the loss of the future of hundreds of thousands of children, who are deprived of the right to study, family and proper health care, and are left vulnerable to various forms of exploitation, humiliation and deprivation.[/size]
[size=45]This causes many of them to fall into the trap of gangs and mafias of organized crime, terrorism, prostitution, human organ trafficking, theft and begging.[/size]
[size=45]Demanding the enactment of deterrent laws and legislation to prohibit child labor and criminalize the perpetration of violence in all its forms against them.[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi social researcher, Nawal Al-Ibrahim, said in an interview with Sky News Arabia:[/size]
[size=45]These governmental and parliamentary statements diagnose the depth of the problems that afflict the reality of Iraqi childhood, especially the spread of poverty, malnutrition, child labor and violence against them, but what is required is not only to describe the backward situation, but to develop solutions and impose strict penalties to prevent their exploitation, beating and even killing.
We are talking, for example, about the presence of more than a million children in the labor market, which is a staggering number, and the number may be much greater, given the spread of this phenomenon, unfortunately, and its cover-up by child laborers.
Where it is possible to organize field inspection tours to monitor the workplaces of children, and to hold their employers accountable with deterrent penalties such as imprisonment, fines, and closure. Parents must also be held accountable for employing their children, instead of providing a healthy and suitable environment for them to live their childhood and complete their education.
What is more dangerous is the spread of the phenomenon of violence against children in the family, school and community, and even in work environments, where they are exploited and assigned to arduous and dangerous work that is not commensurate with their physical abilities and their young age, which requires expediting the enactment of clear and repressive laws and legislation that do justice to children and criminalize them. Employing them, violating their rights and assaulting them.[/size]
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