TEHRAN – In line with population growth policies, families with triplets or more will receive monthly allowances of up to 5 million rials (nearly $120 at the official rate of 42,000 rials), head of Welfare Organization has announced.

The allowances would be paid when the children are born till the age of 6, IRNA quoted Vahid Ghobadi Dana as saying on Saturday.

Some 17,000 households with three or above births will receive the government support across the country, he stated.

He went on to say that since the Iranian calendar year 1393 (March 2014-March 2015) till 1397 (March 2018-March 2019), nearly 1.5 million births were registered in the country per year, 3 percent of which have been twins and 0.5 percent triplets or more.

According to the data released by the National Organization for Civil Registration, comparing past three years, some 1,366,509 infants were born in the country, whose births were registered last year, while 1,487,913 births occurred a year before it, and 1,528,053 births have been recorded in the Iranian calendar year 1395 (March 2016-March 2017), a difference of roughly 100,000 per year.

Several socio-economic factors led to fertility rate decrease and reproductive behavior in the country, including urbanization, education, financial issues, first marriage age, as well as increased access to family planning services along with increased time gap between the firstborn and marriage.

In August 2019, in a letter to the heads of medical science universities and colleges across the country, Health Minister Saeed Namaki ordered the formation of a special committee aimed to prevent the country's population from declining.

“To prevent population decline, it is necessary to intensify and expand prenatal care in less developed areas, as well as to provide postpartum care in deprived areas, so it is imperative to quickly review and announce the facilities required in the deprived areas.

Prioritize the development of infertility treatment centers to serve couples who need treatment due to physiological problems, so that all medical universities should stablish an infertility treatment center and inform the residents about the establishment. Whole services at these centers should be free of charge.

Required resources will be provided by the Ministry’s headquarters.

It is essential to form an expert team to encourage and educate couples who refuse childbearing years after marriage, in addition to informing them of the possibility of infertility in the years ahead.

Highlighting the benefits and positive effects of having a second child in single-child families, using the capacity of psychologists and experienced health professionals, especially in the field of mental health, is necessary.

Obviously, university chancellors should take advantage of cooperation with other departments in line with this important goal, while at the same time coordinating other departments to pace up this national movement to develop the infrastructure needed for the future.”

FB/MG