Ministry Investigates Inadequacies of Poverty Alleviation, Welfare Policies

Despite achieving laudable improvements in indexes such as adult literacy, infant mortality and pregnancy-related deaths and life expectancy, Iran’s policies have failed to achieve goals related to social welfare and poverty alleviation. 
Economic indicators, such as Gini coefficient, the proportion of population below the poverty line, consumption of essential goods, housing and healthcare poverty, the proportion of population covered by social insurance, the number of people eligible for unemployment benefits and the gap between minimum wage and living wage, testify to this reality. 
According to a report by the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare, one-third of the Iranian population, or 27 million people, lives in absolute poverty compared with 20%, or 14 million, in the year ending March 2007. Consumption of essential goods has decreased significantly and the country’s Gini coefficient stood at levels above 4%, i.e., above the global average for the better part of the past two decades.