Title of the Study: Child Labour in Turkey

Type of the Study: Report-Research

Authors of the Study: Tuncer Bulutay

Presentation,

Year/Place of Publication: 1995, Ankara

Language of the Study: Turkish

Number of Pages: 96

Purpose: To explain the subject of child labour in Turkey, to highlight the state of child labour with the use of DIE data and to outline solution suggestions for the problem.

Content: There are 3 parts in this work. In the first part reasons of child labour are underlined. Second part consists of data that explains the situation of working children in Turkey. Also educational status of children are given. In the third chapter, combatting child labour issue is discussed in depth.

Method: Docuement scanning method is applied and DIE data is used.

Excerpt: We think that the principal instruments in combatting child labour in Turkey can be collected in 4 groups: i) Development of the economy. ii) Improvement in the health of the social and cultural atmosphere. iii) Enforcement and betterment of legislation. İv) Progress in education. (p.61)

Some Keywords: working children, child abuse, socio-economic level

Title of the Study: Children Workers Distorted Bodies

Type of the Study: Book

Author of the Study: Duyar, İzzet

Özener, Barış

Presentation,,

Year/Place of Publication: Ankara, 2003

Language of the Study: Turkish

Number of Pages: 224

Purpose: This book seeks an answer to how hundreds of millions of young bodies are affected from working conditions. Historical development and current status of child labor in the world and in Turkey are also discussed.

Content: The Book touches the historical perspectives of ‘child labor’ emerging as a new phenomenon following the entry of capitalism into the industrialization stage in Western Europe, and then discusses the situation specifically in Turkey with a field study based on detailed data.

Method: Literature scanning and field study methods have been used. To determine the distortions made by the working life on the child body, child apprentices in urban workshops are examined. To do this, a study has been conducted on 532 male apprentices aged between 14-18 in two big apprentice training centers in Ankara who attend to the center one day a week under the law and do practice in a workplace in other days in the area they are trained. To determine the bodily distortions in working children, non-working students in the same age range and from the same socio-economic level has been examined as control group and effects of working life on the apprentice children are demonstrated.

Excerpt: Although legal regulations are made to prevent child labor by having tem work as workers and regulations are set for limiting and elimination of child labor starting from the industrialization period and although at least labor safety of children and youth is struggled to be ensured, the problem still remains there; and it is even seen that child labor is resorted more in non-Western societies in parallel with the increase of poverty.

Some keywords: apprentices, child development, ectomorphy, endomorphy, socio-economic level

Title of the Study: Research Report Aimed at Children Working at the Wood Works Sector

Type of the Study: Research – Evaluation Report (The work has been conducted within the scope of the ILO-IPEC Programme.)

Author of the Study: Ministry of Labor and Social Security Department of Labor Inspection Commission

Presentation,,

Year/Place of Publication: 2005, Ankara

Language of the Study: Turkish

Number of Pages: 100

Purpose: Determination of bad working conditions of child workers, their working reasons, social and cultural situations in Ankara, İzmir ve Bursa in the furniture sector, and proposal of possible and plausible actions to immediately eliminate their bad working conditions

Content: Introduction section explains wood works as a sector. Then selection of study areas, research method, sampling, findings and demographical properties of working children are discussed. Demographical properties of families and employers are listed, and working conditions are probed into in detail. The study is ended with outcomes and proposals.

Method: Field studies are made in 364 workplaces in Ankara, 210 workplaces in İzmir and 126 workplaces in Bursa. Workplaces are randomly chosen from the address list of each city. Because the address lists prepared for three cities contain no information about the firms, mono-stage layered sampling has been used instead of multi-staged.

Excerpt: In consideration of working conditions and environments faced by children at workplaces, all of the children under the age of 15 have to be taken away from working life, and children aged between 15-18 must be taken away from heavy works such as wood works negatively affecting their physical and mental development. P.66

Some keywords: woodworks, working conditions, socio-demographic level, socio-economic level

Title of the Study: Gender, Education and Child Labour in Turkey

Type of the Study: Research – Evaluation Report (The work has been conducted within the scope of the ILO-IPEC Programme.)

Author of the Study: Prof.Dr. Yakın Ertürk

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Meltem Dayıoğlu

Presentation,,

Year/Place of Publication: 2004, Geneva

Language of the Study: English

Number of Pages: 170

Purpose: This study examines the connections between gender, education and child labour and the subject has been considered from a new perspective in consideration of ILO-IPEC projects conducted and completed in Turkey. Considering child labor only from a commercial perspective, many areas not made for money but child labour is exploited are excluded. Particularly the works done by female children are important here. Considering schooling ratios and education years, there are differences with regards both the areas worked and education received by girls and boys.

Content: First part focuses on the concept of child labour and gives a brief of child labour in Turkey. Part 2 explains the contents and purposes of ILO-IPEC projects conducted in Turkey. Part 3 discusses the concept of gender with regards child labor. Part 4 give macro-level analyses and addresses development, human development, demographic profile, economical environment, income distribution, educational system and regional-sexual differences. Part 5 studies the opportunities and challenges regarding schooling. Part 6 focuses on employment and school participation issues. And Part 7 gives a conclusion.

Method: This study generally adopts a conceptual perspective and to support this, it has benefited from the Household Labour survey conducted in 1994-1999 by DIE.

This study first addressed the concepts of variety of works, and sexuality-based labour. From this sexuality perspective, social-sectoral labor force distribution and from here where the child labour is situated in this sexuality-based labor distribution is have been touched. To do this, micro, meso and macro level analyses have been resorted as supplementary.

Excerpt: ‘This book began with the objective to examine the gender differentials in child labour and educational attainment of children in Turkey. The underlying motivation behind this endeavour was to contribute to development of an integrated approach to gender, education and child labour so that effective intervention strategies may be developed to eradicate child labour while increasing the educational attainment of boys and girls and to overcome existing gender disparities.

Some keywords: gender discrimination, apprentices, apprentice training, human development, socio-economic level

Title of the Study: Turkey, Working Street Children in Three Metropolitan Cities: A Rapid Assessment

Type of the Study: Research –Evaluation Report (The study has been conducted within the scope of the ILO-IPEC Programme

Authors of the Study: Dr. Bahattin Akşit

Dr. Nuray Karancı

Dr. Ayşe Gündüz Hoşgör

Presentation,

Year/Place of Publication: November 2001, Geneva

Language of the Study: English

Number of Pages: 99

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the jobs made by street children in Adana, Diyarbakır and İstanbul, revealing the living and working conditions and family socio-demographic characteristics of these children, examination of the look of children and families on the issues of working on the street and education, and studying the perspectives and attitudes of specialists from various institutes and customers.

Content: The study comprises 6 parts. The first part gives the purpose, scope and methodology of the study. Part 2 gives the demographical, education and socio-economic profiles of 3 cities. Part 3 discusses the legal and organizational aspects of the topic. Part 4 draws a profile of children working in the streets. Types of works done by children, their working hours, monies earned, conditions, living conditions, educational status, perspectives of police, people and customers, future expectations and dreams of children are discussed. And part 5 describes the families of children working in the streets, and their profiles are given with regard to their socio-economic, socio-demographic, and migration histories and families’ perspectives on working on the streets are probed into. Part 6 is the conclusion section.

Method: ILO-UNICEF’s ‘Rapid Assessment Methodology’ method has been implemented. 4 types of data gathering techniques were used to illustrate the family situations, working conditions, schooling and general attitudes of working children : (1) Semi-planned interviews made in these 3 cities with 188 working children and 65 parents. (2) In-depth focus group interviews with relevant organizations and customers, (3) observations about the working areas and living quarters of children. (4) review of literature about children working in the streets

Excerpt: Attitudes of sellers against these children have similarities with that of customers. Some of them know them very well because they encounter every day and help them in certain things. However, because the owners of some expensive product shops see them as threat for themselves and for their customers, they don’t want them to be nearby. (p.56)

Some keywords: child workers, migration, children working on the streets, socio-demographic level, socio-economic level

Şişman, Y.(2003); ‘‘Child and Youth Labour in Turkey with Regards Social Policies’’, Kamu İş: İş Hukuku ve İktisat Magazine, C. VII, Issue No.2.

Number of Works Cited: –

Scope:

Our purpose in this study is not to determine the dimension and attributes of the problem but at the same time to make even a small contribution to the solution of the problem by revealing the targets. Forms, means and limited nature of policies aimed at protecting child and youth labour. This study basically discusses child and youth labour in the urban area. Because there are evidences proving that there is visible increase in child and youth labour particularly in the urban area in last 20-30 years. In addition, children and youth working in the urban areas are most probably more unjustly treated than those working in the rural parts; therefore they deserved the special interest of academicians with regards policy production. However, most of what has been said in this article is fully valid for the agricultural sector as well.

An Excerpt from the Article:

Low economical development level in our country and more importantly unfair distribution of income results in the issue of poverty. Besides a population increase of 18,3%, which may be considered quick, increases the spare of children in the overall population. However, because social services are not increased in parallel with the increase in the number of children and youth on grounds of insufficient budget, participations in the work force in early ages are inevitable. Continuation of migration from rural parts to urban parts and inability to develop employment opportunities in cities, and even the shrinkage in employment due to crises in recent years and unemployment raises urban poverty to the top of our country’s social issues and it is mostly the children who take over this responsibility.

Some Keywords:

child labour, young labour force, city problems, children working in rural areas, social politics, socio-economic level, poverty

Özener, B.; Duyar, İ.; ‘‘Working Children: Distorted Bodies’’, Çalışma Ortamı Magazine, Issue No.54, January-February 2001.

Number of Works Cited: 10

Scope:

Number of children working in workshops in cities is studied to determine the distortions caused by working life on the body of children. To do this, a study has been made on 532 male apprentices aged between 14 and 18 attending the two apprentice training centers in Ankara (Ahi Evran-Ostim) one day a week under the law and in other days maintaining their practical education by working in the area they are trained. To determine the bodily distortions in working children, a group of children who are not working has been studied as the control group with the same socio-economic level has been examined and the effects of working life on the children area revealed.

An Excerpt from the Article:

This excessive growth and muscle tissue increase in bones unfortunately seems to be occurring at the cost of development in height. Low values of apprentices with regards height and ectomorphy components may be interpreted as a support to this opinion. Low ectomorphy component values means that height is not doing its normal development. Backwardness against working children in endomorphy, another component of the body, reveals that working children do not have sufficient amounts of fat accumulation. (p.3)

Some Keywords:

apprentices, child development, ectomorphy, endomorphy, socio-economic level

Canbaz, S.(2003); ‘‘Evaluation of the Trait-Stat Anxiety Levels of Apprentices Attending Samsun Apprentice Training Center’’, Mesleki Sağlık ve Güvenlik Magazine, 2003, 13:33-39.

Number of Works Cited: 25

Scope:

Millions of children in the growing age are exploited by employment under inconvenient conditions. This study has been planned to reveal the socio-demographic properties and working life details of children studying and working at Samsun Apprentice Training Center (CEM). The Population of this cross-sectional type of study is drawn from “apprentice candidate” and “apprentice” children studying one day of the week at Samsun CEM and working at a workplace in other days during the 2000-2001 educational year. A survey form covering questions relating to socio-demographic aspects, socio-economic level, working area, working environment and risks caused by working conditions has been given to children included in the scope of this study in groups of 15 children and under observation.

An Excerpt from the Article:

Because of the inability to prevent child labour in the short term, action to be taken must be to implement actions to solve the problems of the child in working life, and implement actions to minimize the negative effects of working life on their development. Problems of working children, their causes and solutions are varying. Solutions aimed at problems in this multi-dimensional issue should be addressed in co-operation by the government, employers, non-governmental organizations and professional bodies, families and children. (p.39)

Some Keywords:

working conditions, apprentices, socio-demographic level, socio-economic level

Başargan, H.N.; Kümbül, B.(2001); ‘‘A Look on the Issue of Working Children from A Family Perspective’’, (in the ‘Seminar on Working Children in Turkey’), DIE Publications, Ankara, p.137-161.

Number of Works Cited:

Scope:

The study first puts a definition of child based on the fact that the issue of working children might be approached differently by societies with different socio-economic structures, different cultures, and education levels, and comments are made about how the perception of child might be. After a detailed analysis about the value of children, starting from the definition of working child, topics like why children are obliged to work and which factors pushed them to the working life, focusing on the negative psychological influences created by working phenomenon on the psycho-social development of child. Finally, based on the fact that the family is an important determining factor on a child labour, some important results from a survey conducted on families of working children has been presented from a study made in İzmir within the scope of the ILO-IPEC project.

An Excerpt from the Article:

Aries connects his perception of childhood in such a way to the child’s full participation of adult life and this indirectly results from the structure of family and society at that time. Social life in the Medieval Ages was one that was very intensively experienced. (p.71)

Some Keywords:

family, working children, ILO-IPEC, socio-economic level

Balcı, Y.G.(2002); ‘‘A Different Dimension in Child Exploitation: Sexual Discrimination in Working Children’’, Çalışma Ortamı Magazine, Issue No.61, March-April.

Number of Works Cited: 14

Scope:

Child labor has been discussed from the sexuality point of view using the Child Labour Survey made by State Statistics Institute (DIE) in 1999. Using available official data, participation percentages of male and female children to the working life have been discussed, together with how these percentages changed with the progress of age.

An Excerpt from the Article:

As a result, upon examination of the 1999 Child Labour Survey and in the light of these findings, it is clearly seen that sexuality is a source of exploitation in addition to child labour. Effects of this exploitation take place in the long term. That female children work in selected jobs without the purpose of learning a profession and removing themselves from professional life in order to become a good wife and mother for cultural and socio-economic reasons in accordance with the role determined by the society and contributing the family and her own dowry cause them to remain as unqualified labour. (p.19)

Some Keywords:

family, gender discrimination, working children, child labour survey, child abuse, economic contribution, socio-economic level

Alpar, B.M.(2002); ‘‘Regulations on Working Life Related to the ILO Convention No.182 Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour’’, Kamu-İş: İş Hukuku ve İktisat Magazine, Volume:7, Issue No.1.

Number of Works Cited: 7

Scope:

After a short introduction conceptually discussing child labour, focus is made to the international law aspects of the topic; ILO conventions, and other international conventions are discussed. Subsequent sections focus on the legal aspects of the topic in our country.

An Excerpt from the Article:

Considering the socio-economic conditions of countries, insufficient resources and lack of infrastructure makes us think that it is hard to eliminate child labour in the short term. Its realization depends on improvement of social and economic conditions in many countries. So, ILO-IPEC set its priority as the Prevention of “Worst Forms of Child Labor”. (p.19)

Some Keywords:

child labour, ILO, socio-economic level, national regulation, international regulation

Abay, A.R.(2002); ‘‘Problems of Apprentice Students (The Case of Bostancı Apprentice Training Center)’’, Kocaeli University, Institute of Social Sciences Magazine, Issue No.2.

Number of Works Cited: –

Scope:

To determine the problems of students studying at Bostancı Apprentice Training Center, and produce proposals for solutions in consideration of problems at the national level. Answers to some questions are also sought aimed at this purpose:

– What are the socio-economic and socio-cultural conditions of children -and their families- who have moved away from education, are disengaged from the educational system and joined the workforce although they were at the age of compulsory education?

– Can the Apprentice Training we struggle to implement under Law No. 3308 address the need for education to subject children who have moved away from education to reeducation?

-etc.

An excerpt from the article:

Following conclusions were generally made in the light of study findings:

a- Apprentice students generally preferred being car mechanics when they choose their careers.

b- Vast majority of students attending ÇEM (Apprentice Training Center) are above the age of 15 and graduates of elementary school. Considering the degrees of graduation of apprentices from elementary schools, it is obvious that the reason for moving away from education is not failure but lack of interest and economical.

c- In general, families of students are generally elementary school graduates, with vast majority of mothers being housewives and fathers’ being mostly independently-employed. (p.19)

Some Keywords:

apprentices, apprentice training, child labour, child abuse, socio-economic level

Title of the Study: Problems of Working Children: Sivas Apprentice Training Center

Type of the Study: Master Thesis

Author of the Study: Oktay Atmar

Presentation,

Year/Place of Publication: Ankara, 2006 (TODAİE Public Administration Programme)

Language of the Study: Turkish

Number of Pages: 139

Purpose: In the case of Sivas industrial zone, to determine the socio-economic properties and working conditions of children working at the industrial zone and studying at the Vocational Training Center. Therefore, this study aims to establish the situation. The second purpose is to determine how trainings given in Vocational Training Centers will be perceived by children.

Content: First part in the Labor Code bearing the title documents protecting children and child labor describes the concepts of child and child labor, and examines international and national regulations protecting child and youth labor. Part two examines the causes forcing children to work and evaluates problems encountered by problems and vocational trainings in the workplace. Part three gives the findings of the field study applied on the apprentices and employers in Sivas Vocational Training Center.

Method: Survey method has been chosen as data collection method. However, in interpreting and evaluating the survey, contributions of the researcher’s vocational observations are also benefited. The survey is applied to apprentices working in Sivas Vocational Training Center and working at the industrial zone and to master workmen employing these apprentices with them.

Excerpt: Wages to be paid to candidate apprentices, apprentices and students undergoing vocational education in enterprises and increases in these wages will be set by a contract to be made between the school administration and owner of the workplace by the guardian of candidate apprentice or the apprentice or its protector or himself or herself if he is mature. (p.39)

Some keywords: apprentices, apprentice training, vocational training, socio-economic level

Özbay, H., N. Şahin vd., “Personality Image at Adolesence: Comparison Between working and Studying Adolescents’’, Türk Psikiyatri Magazine, Ankara, 1991, Volume:7, Issue No. 2, p. 82-96.

Number of Works Cited: 22

Scope:

This research is made to find out how youngsters spend their adolscence period. There are two groups compared in this study. One group selected using half-random sample technique from a group of adolescents working between the ages 12-22 and the other group is selected from the same socio-economic backgrounds which attend schools so that comparisons can be made from an age range of 11-21. It is found that %17 are having real diificulties in this period. Also the mixed characteristics of this period is tried to outlined.

An Excerpt from the Article:

In theory, the findings of the scales used in this research which measures behaviorial, emotional,acquaintance and vegetativesigns are expected to be realted with each other. Results obtained using Offer Scale which shows the self-ego image outlines how people evaluate and generalise themselves personally. People who evaluate themselves more positively is believed to have less depression and concern signs.The total points obtained from the scales are used to compare the working and the studying groups. (p.90)

Some Key Words:

personality image, working children, child development, depression, adolescence, socio-economic level