Today is the World Day Against Child Labour... The economic crisis has made children “workers”!
While the effects of the economic crisis are felt deeply, the burden of living for families with low and fixed incomes increases, while children go to the workplace instead of school to shoulder this burden of their families.
Today, while the whole world organizes programs to prevent child labor on the World Day Against Child Labour, nearly one million children in our country have to work hard to contribute to their families' livelihoods, while they should be at school desks.
1 MILLION CHILDREN ARE WORKING TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE FAMILY BUDGET
In particular, the deterioration of the economy in recent years has also increased child labor. Studies conducted by trade unions on the subject revealed that the rate of employment has increased among children from families with low and fixed incomes. During the summer holidays and weekends, children work hard instead of studying in order to meet their most basic right to education and not to burden their families. The majority of child workers support their families by working not only during holidays but also during school hours.
THERE ARE APPROXIMATELY 2 MILLION REFUGEE CHILDREN
Another minus in Turkey's report on children's rights is refugee children. The majority of refugee children, whose number reaches 2 million, are forced to work after school or by not going to school at all. While agriculture is the leading sector in which refugee children work, many refugee children work in small industrial areas.
5 MILLION CHILDREN HAVE TO LEFT SCHOOL
Children do not only engage in economic pursuits, contrary to their pedagogical development. Today, millions of children are saying goodbye to school in our country. According to the Children's Report published by TURKSTAT in recent months, the 5-year-old schooling rate has decreased from 71.2 percent to 56.9 percent in the last 1 year. This decline was not only experienced in pre-school education. According to the same report, the number of children leaving school in primary, secondary and secondary education has exceeded 5 million. While the education system, which turns into a puzzle, is at the beginning of the dropout of children, the number of children who drop out of school due to economic reasons has increased in recent years.