Child Labor Main Source of Income in 1 in Every 5 Homes

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According to Başak Culture and Art Foundation’s Domestic Child Labor Study, boys are forced to work outside of the homes whereas girls are forced to work inside. The girls forced to work at home are predominantly aged between 8-12.

Within the scope of the study, 193 mothers, who do domestic works at homes in İstanbul’s districts of Üsküdar and Şişli, have been interviewed with.

95% of the women replied in the affirmative to the question “Is there anyone who brings income to home other than you?” 75.1% said their husbands, 13% said their husbands and children, 6.7% said their children have income as well.

73.6% of them said they make their children carry out domestic work. House cleaning, washing laundry/dishes, ironing, shopping and childcare are among the works that children do.

Child labor as source of income

Some of the data acquired from the study are as follows:

- The main source of income rests on child labor in one in every five homes.

- Child labor directly contributes to domestic revenue in the houses in which domestic labor is carried out.

- Children are used as cheap labor at homes. Wage that children receive usually doesn’t exceed 300 TL (75 Euros).

- Domestic child and woman labor is affected by gender roles. Domestic labor becomes a necessity for

Girls

Those who are forced to domestic work are predominantly girls. In total 128 girls in 109 of the 193 houses are forced to domestic labor.

- 43% of the girls are aged between 8-12, 30% are 13-15 and 25% are above 15.

- Girls are forced to work for longer hours than the boys.

- Domestic labor negatively and directly affects child-parent relation. (YY/TK)