More daycares to boost female employment

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

Hürriyet photo

A project for increasing the number of daycare centers in order to increase female employment was launched Jan. 21, through a public-private cooperation agreement between the Family and Social Policies Ministry, the Technology Ministry and Borusan Holding.

The “Annemin İşi Benim Geleceğim,” (My Mother’s Job, My Future), project aims to build daycare centers in 10 organized industrial zones, serving 10,265 female employees’ 6,260 children up to six years of age, Technology Minister Nihat Ergün said at the protocol signing ceremony. He stated there were currently 150,000 women workers in industry (making up 15 percent of the total industrial workforce) and around 1,000 in every organized industrial zone, adding that the project aimed to contribute to women’s participation in economic life and also to provide safe places for their children’s education.

Also speaking at the ceremony, Borusan CEO Agah Uğur said the female labor force participation was only 28 percent, according to state-run statistics body TÜİK. New daycare centers, named “Borusan Neşe Fabrikaları,” (Borusan Joy Factories), will be built in 10 cities and will amount to a total 5 million Turkish Liras investment over the next four years, Uğur said. Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin emphasized that the government had introduced the principle of equal pay for equal work in legislation issued in 2008.She said the Labor Ministry was also working on a project to provide social security to part-time workers, as well as those who work from home, which would also help contribute to female labor.

Borusan will build daycares in four organized industrial zones in Adıyaman, Afyon, Şanlıurfa and Malatya this year; while other centers will later be established in Fatsa, Karaman, Balıkesir,Çorum, Diyarbakır and Mardin.