Press Centre 2007/04/23: Child Protection

No April 23rd for these children!

According to the UNICEF report on Eliminating Child Poverty which you are reading about first in Yeni Aktüel, the state of children in Turkey is unfortunately not as bright as the celebrations on April 23rd, the 83rd National Sovereignty and Children’s Day, should imply. Roughly 5.6 million children under the age of 15 are trapped in poverty; there are 770,000 child labourers and 29 out of 1,000 newborns die before reaching their first birthday.

Aslı Ortakmaç

There is a song we all learned in the first grade of primary school: Today is April 23rd and people are full of joy because April 23rd is, after all, the most celebrated day for children in Turkey — but for which children? Taking a look at the UNICEF report, which is based on surveys and data on child poverty in the country, dampens any enthusiasm this special day may generate. According to the conclusions of the report and the views of experts in this area, the tradition of April 23rd should represent more than the usual ceremonies that place children in symbolic top-level posts. Such ceremonies would at least have some meaning if, for example, leaders offered their posts to Mahmut who has to pick cotton in the fields, Esma who has become a mother at the early age of 13, Murat who sells simit all day, Kerem who lives on the streets or Selma who had to leave school after fifth grade to take care of her younger brothers and sisters.

It is not ‘fresh news’ that the typical Turkish family has been wrestling with economic difficulties for some time because of swelling unemployment and crises following one after another. Nevertheless, the fact that poverty rates are highest for children out of all the demographic groups is compelling enough to rethink the issue during this festival week. At present 38% of the population of Turkey is under 19 years of age and children under 6 years of age make up 11% of the total population. In other words, 7 million ‘young human beings’ are as yet unable to defend their rights and remain in need of care from adults. Since children are both defenceless and the future of their country at one and the same time, the fact that so many are growing up in poverty poses a serious threat to both their future as individuals and to the future of their country.

Professor Ayşe Buğra of the Child Poverty Working Group in the Social Policy Forum of Bosporus University defines children in poverty as those whose families have to live on incomes less than 60% of medium income level in the country.

According to this definition, children in families earning less than €1,830 a year grow up in poverty. The report points out that the rate of poverty in the country is 20.5%. This means that 7.2 million urban and 10.9 million rural dwellers living in poverty cannot fully provide for their nutrition, housing and clothing needs! However these figures increase further still for younger age groups and also between urban and rural areas. Roughly 28% of children under 15 years of age or about 5.6 million children have to face the consequences of poverty today. The situation of children in rural areas is even more tragic since 40% of them have to cope with poverty from the moment they are born.

Poor children don’t grow

Although current literature uses per capita income as a measure of poverty, child poverty in particular should not be addressed as a pure economic issue according to Professor Buğra who says that:

Poverty is a situation which prevents human beings from participating in society as equal individuals.The situation is naturally related to income but it also involves unequal access to education and health services as well. Furthermore, there may be no parks, playgrounds and so forth for children in low-income areas. So younger members of society are deprived of environments conducive to the full enjoyment of their childhood and participation to society. This raises many problems for the future.

Children of low-income families have poor access to quality education and face more serious health problems. According to the findings of Turkey Demographic and Health Survey 2003 (TDHS), 29 out of 1,000 babies die before reaching their first birthday each year and 37 out of 1,000 children die before reaching their fifth birthday. These figures are high compared to neighbouring countries let alone industrialised nations. Furthermore, 46% or almost a half of children are not fully immunised and 3% are not immunised at all. While the calorie and protein intake of half of all families exceeds the required amount, one in four families are insufficiently nourished. Consumption of protein, including meat, milk and eggs, is only a third of consumption in European countries. The growth of 12% of children is restricted and incidence of low birth weight is around 4% as a result. Malnutrition is one of the most important implications of child poverty. As with other indicators, incidence of malnutrition also increases in the eastern regions of the country — 7.7% of children in the east suffer severe malnutrition while the figure drops to 1.9% in western Anatolia.

Hunger: the worst form of violence

The share of food diminishes in households as poverty increases, striking mothers and infants most heavily as Professor Şükrü Hatun points out in his article Poverty and its Impact on Children. According to UNICEF, poverty damages both the mental and physical development of children and generates a vicious circle that is repeated in subsequent generations.

Professor Hatun stresses that hunger is the most apparent consequence of poverty and continues:

Hunger is certainly nothing les than violence towards the body since the hormones that become active as a result are ‘devastating’ hormones, including glucagons and catecholamine to begin with: the hormones activated by hunger begin by destroying glucogen in the liver, then adipose tissue and finally muscular tissue. Since ‘destruction’ is the most obvious aspect of violence, defining hunger as a form of biological or hormonal violence is beyond what one may call ‘metaphor.’

Mahatma Gandhi defined poverty, the main cause of hunger, as the worst form of violence for very much this reason. Episodes of hunger tend to be accompanied by physical and spiritual unrest akin to episodes of violence and so the condition has implications for future as Professor Hatun points out. The concept of post-traumatic stress disorder which has recently gained popularity in psychiatry refers to this process, and hits at the increasing incidence of acts of violence.

The child’s right to education is also compromised when his or her family cannot afford school expenses or when they have to work in order to support their families. The UNICEF report shows that the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to achieve universal primary education for all male and female children could not be met by the end of 2005. Although campaigns like Haydi Kızlar Okula! have helped improve girls’ enrolment and attendance rates in primary education, the total enrolment rate only reached 92% in 2004.

Poor children need to go to school!

While acknowledging the contribution of such campaigns in drawing public attention to the issue, Professor Buğra stresses that the problem has to be solved mainly by the State:

Narrow project-oriented and charitable approaches are beginning to dominate the field of education. Yet it is essential that the Government increase resources allocated to education. Leaving this essential responsibility to others may have quite serious consequences for education.

The report stresses that financial resources allocated to basic education, health services and social protection are essential for preventing child poverty. Yet, of the 7% of the GNI allocated to education in Turkey as of 2005, 62% is publicly financed while 35% are covered by household expenditures. The report further adds that families in Turkey have to spend more on education than elsewhere in OECD countries — with the exception of the US and Korea. Speaking about the consequences of insufficient funding in education, Professor Buğra says that:

Money is collected from families in the form of ‘compulsory contributions’ and children of families who cannot afford this contribution cannot benefit from educational services on equal footing with others. There is a system of ‘two different classes’ even in state schools today. Children of families who can contribute have the opportunity to attend less crowded classes with access to computers.

According to Professor Buğra and the UNICEF report on Preventing Child Poverty, the most effective course to follow in combating the problem is policies geared towards supporting families with benefits for their children. The conditional cash transfer (CCT) scheme is one example where girls in particular are enrolled to school and taken for periodic health checkups. However, the fund allocated to this scheme on World Bank credit is about to be exhausted just as we are preparing to celebrate the April 23rd Children’s Day.

Unless new funds are mobilised to continue the scheme, it seems that children who are currently attending school on the CCT scheme will have to go back to working in textile workshops or cotton fields, selling paper handkerchiefs on the street or looking after their younger brothers and sisters at home by the time of the next April 23rd celebrations.

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