‘Hotline receives 1,000 reports about women, children a day’

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Minister of Family, Labor and Social Services Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk has answered the Parliamentary question of main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Niğde MP Ömer Fethi Gürer regarding the applications made to the "Alo 183" Hotline for Women, Children and Social Service, which has been established to examine the complaints about negligence and abuse of children and violence against women and to forward these complaints to the relevant units and institutions.

In his Parliament question originally addressed to Vice President Fuat Oktay, CHP MP Gürer asked how many applications were made to the hotline, what action was taken following these applications and how many of these applications were concluded. The MP also wanted to learn how many applications were about children and women, what their age ranges were and how many lawsuits were launched and finalized.

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Answering the Parliamentary question of the MP, Minister of Family, Labor and Social Services Selçuk has announced that 336 thousand 564 applications were made to the hotline throughout 2018.

According to the answer of the Minister, the majority of the applications were made about children while they were followed by women.

Indicating that "all applications made to the hotline were examined", Selçuk has further stated that "the necessary consultation was provided depending on the subject matter of the application."

In his commentary about the Minister's answer, CHP MP Gürer has said that considering the total number of 336 thousand 564 reports in a year, it means that nearly 1,000 reports were made in a day.

Gürer has found it "worrisome" that an average of 1,000 applications were made about the problems concerning women and children a day in a country with a population of 83 million.

Underlining the importance of the Ministry's meticulous examination of these 1,000 applications a day, Gürer has indicated that "legal and administrative arrangements as well as educational activities must be increased and psychological support must be provided" in this context.

Concluding his remarks, the MP has noted that it prevents them from seeing how the ensuing legal process was followed as the Ministry's answer does not include the lawsuits and court rulings or the data about how these applications were followed. (EMK/SD)