TEHRAN – A total budget of 30 trillion rials (nearly $714 million at the official rate of 42,000 rials) has been allocated to create 60,000 jobs for the underprivileged individuals covered by the Welfare Organization, IRNA reported on Saturday.

“Our commitment last year (March 2020-March 2021) was to facilitate the employment of 56,716 people, while we were able to facilitate the employment of 59,304 people,” Zolfaqar Yazdanmehr, deputy head of the Welfare Organization stated.

Some 1.6 million disabled people are covered by the Welfare Organization and about 240,000 women heads of households are also covered by this organization, while more than one million families receive pensions.

In Iran, there are 3 million women-headed households, out of a total of 22 million families, and most of them can be found in less developed areas of the country, according to the UNDP office in Iran.

The Welfare Organization also will provide 35,169 residential units for the underprivileged families across the country over the current [Iranian calendar] year (started March 20).

Also, the construction of 10,000 housing units will also begin this year, Yazdanmehr said.

Currently, 26 percent of the country’s population lives in villages, around 39,000 villages have more than 20 households and 23,000 villages have less than 20 households.

Thus, more than 97 percent of the country’s rural population lives in villages with over 20,000 households.

Many efforts have been made over the past couple of years by the government to support villagers and slow down the trend of migration from rural areas to cities.

FB/MG