One out of every four children in Turkey lives in a poor household. The OECD average for child poverty is 12.6 percent.

According to OECD figures, Turkey is among the countries where child poverty is the highest. Prime minister Erdoğan recently jumped on the opposition parties, saying, “Do you want the youth to become thinner addicts?” I personally do not. I know Mr. Erdoğan does not, either. But the figures are clear: It is poor children who become paint-thinner addicts. They live on the streets. During the last decade, as OECD figures suggest, child poverty has increased in Turkey. Today, let me tell you what I understand from these figures. What we need is to devise policies on the basis of these figures, not to talk through our hats like we are competing on secondary school debate teams. Let me say what I think so they do not criticize me later and say, “Why didn't you say it if you knew what to do!”

The most recent Child Poverty Report of the OECD was published last year. The report compares OECD member countries with respect to child poverty. It includes individuals below 18 years old who are considered as sharing the disposable household income without having to contribute to it. In this context, the disposable incomes of households are compared on the basis of household size. Cash transfers are included when calculating household income. Children who live in households with an equivalised disposable income less than 50% of the median disposable income are categorized as poor. Therefore, the child poverty rate refers to children who live in poor households in proportion to the total child population.

According to the OECD report, the child poverty rate in Turkey is around 23.5 percent. What does this mean? This means, one out of every four children in Turkey lives in a poor household. The OECD average for child poverty is 12.6 percent. As per 2008 figures, therefore, Turkey almost doubled the OECD in child poverty. In the Nordic countries, child poverty rates were at single-digit levels. The rates for Turkey, Israel, Mexico and the US, however, exceeded 20 percent. The steepest increase in child poverty rate during the 1995-2008 period was witnessed in Israel, with 12.1 points. Over the same period, child poverty rate in Turkey jumped by 3.9 points. The report is accessible at http://bit.ly/bk52kp.

Having looked at the charts in the report, I could not help deriving some conclusions. The first one is obvious: The rate of children living in poor households has been increasing in Turkey. We can read this in terms of higher fertility rates among poor households, as well. Also, we can identify from the distribution of poverty rate that child poverty is a severe problem in Diyarbakir, for instance. Child poverty is likely to become a significant challenge for Turkey, not today, but in the future. Even if we neglect the fact that the thinner-addict street children come from this group… Children who live in poor households do not benefit sufficiently from education and health services since they are left one step behind. In the end, what will erode will be the skills set of the country. Let me note this down. This was the first point to state.

Now the second one: According to OECD figures, the child poverty rate decreases as the rate of working mothers increases. Therefore, given the severe constraints on the participation of women in the labor force in Turkey, we have to expect a rise in child poverty in the period ahead. The number of poor children will decrease as the number of poor households decreases. There is a two-fold causality: as mothers join the labor force, fertility rates tend to decrease on the one hand and household income increases on the other. Child poverty is closely associated with unemployment.

The third point: What does the “minimum three children per family” campaign imply, given the fact that fertility rates are already high in poor households? Does Mr. Erdoğan seek to reduce the child poverty rate by encouraging rich families to have more children, having accepted that he has failed to lower the number of poor households? Is he trying to disguise the problem rather than solve it?

In Turkey, the number of children who live in poor households has been increasing. The priorities of social policy planning have to be revised taking this fact into account; otherwise, Turkey will be a mere spectator while the already-ruined human capital of the country goes up in smoke.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 21.02.2012