Turkish government kicks off pilot plan to offer financial support to grandmothers

ANKARA

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Grandmothers who look after their grandchildren while their parents are at work will be offered financial support in a pilot project in 10 provinces, starting in March, Labor Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu has said. 

The financial support will be 425 Turkish Liras ($113) per grandmother per month and a total of 6,000 families from 10 provinces will be included in the project, Müezzinoğlu told reporters on Feb. 8. 

“We will offer 30 percent of the minimum wage, or 425 liras, to grandmothers who take care of their grandchildren. Some 1,000 families from Istanbul, İzmir and the northwestern province of Bursa will be included in the project in the first stage, while 500 families from Ankara, Kayseri, Sakarya, Antalya, Konya, Gaziantep and Tekirdağ will also be a part of the project,” he added. 

The pilot project will be online for a one-year period and half of the costs will be covered by Turkey’s employment agency İSKUR, while the other half will be paid by the Labor Ministry. It is expected to cost 6 million liras ($1.5 million). 

Families with a total salary lower than three minimum wages will be eligible for the project, according to officials. They also say grandmothers younger than 65 will be preferred, but this is not a strict limit and grandmothers who are older could also be included in the project. 

Müezzinoğlu said the government will decide on whether to make the project permanent according to the results of regular monitoring of the pilot by ministry officials. 

Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya said the project aimed to increase women’s employment and strengthen traditional family ties. 

“This project has two main targets: One of them is to increase women’s employment and the other is to strengthen traditional family ties by increasing interaction between older and younger generations,” Kaya said. 

“When we support women, we support families and the society,” she added.