Child poverty in Turkey: ‘Meals skipped almost every day’

* Photo: Deep Poverty Network

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Şırnak MP and HDP Child Commission member Hüseyin Kaçmaz has submitted a Parliamentary inquiry to the Speaker's Office with to prevent child poverty in Turkey.

HDP's Kaçmaz has requested that children's right to be protected from poverty and social isolation be safeguarded and that the measures to be taken to put effective policies into force for the children who do not have the means for a healthy life be determined.

In the justification of his inquiry, the MP has underlined that "in Turkey, 27.2 percent of whose population consists of children, child poverty has seen a considerable increase in the recent period."

Referring to the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Şırnak MP Hüseyin Kaçmaz has stated, "Deepened by the AKP-MHP bloc's insistence on the policies of war, the economic crisis has affected children the most."

As indicated by the MP, "today, millions of children are unable to meet their basic needs such as food, heating and clothes and child poverty aggravates other social crises such as child labor and marriages."

'Children struggle with anemia'

Further in his Parliamentary inquiry, HDP's Hüseyin Kaçmaz has cited a study published in the Turkish Family Physicians' Journal.

The study has found that one out of every four children weighs extremely low and there are problems with growth and development of children. According to the study, children have a high potential for suffering from cardiac diseases while 85 percent of girls and 68 percent of boys struggle with anemia: "It is indicated that this rate is only 18 percent in Europe."

At this point, the MP has recalled that the recent fluctuations in the foreign exchange rates and the pandemic have also been effective in preventing families and children from accessing their basic needs.

"Especially the serious increases in the prices of baby formula and diapers as a result of this cause citizens to have economic hardships in affording these items," HDP Şırnak MP Kaçma has noted:

"Families have to feed their children aged 0-3 with food not nutritious enough for their age group such as instant soup, sugared water and rice porridge. According to the 'Child Poverty in Turkey' report of the Deep Poverty Network, 74 percent of the families in deep poverty can hardly afford baby formula while 21 percent cannot access baby formula or diapers at all."

'Meals skipped every day'

Citing the data of the same report, the MP has raised concerns that "38.7 percent of the households skip meals almost every day."

According to the MP, "experts have been emphasizing that the children living in conditions of poverty face the risk of being unable to access their right to life, development, protection and participation."

"They have also indicated that nutrition at the ages of 0-3 is of vital importance for brain development and the children who cannot eat sufficiently will face irreversible damage in that case," he has added.

Against the background of these findings, HDP Şırnak MP Hüseyin Kaçmaz has requested that "in order to prevent child poverty in Turkey and by observing the best interest of children, launching a Parliamentary inquiry with the aim of determining the measures to be taken to the ensure their fundamental right to life is essential." (AÖ/SD)