Turkey - Poverty and coping after crises (Vol. 2 of 2) : Background Papers

Report No. 24185-TR Turkey Poverty and Coping After Crises (In Two Volumes) Volume II: Background Papers July 28, 2003 Human Development Unit Europe and Central Asia Region Document of the World Bank  Turkey: Poverty and Coping After Crises CurrencyEquivalents ExchangeRate Effective= September 1,2001 CurrencyUnit =Turkish Lira (TL) US$ 1=TL 1,500,000 GovernmentFiscalYear January 1-December31 Weights and Measures Metric System Abbreviationsand Acronyms BK Bag-Kur CPI ConsumerPrice Index DIE StateInstitute of Statistics ES Emekli Sandigi FA0 (UN)Food andAgnculturalOrganization HCIS Household Consumptionand Income Survey HIES Household Income and Expenditure Survey LSA Living StandardsAssessment PPP PurchasingPowerParity SRMP Social Risk Mitigation Project SSK Sosyal SigortalarKurumu SHCEK Social Services and Child Protection Organization SYDTF Social SolidarityFund SYDV(s) Social SolidarityFoundation(s) Vice President: Johannes Linn (ECAVP) CountryDirector: Ajay Chhibber(ECCU6) Sector Director: Annette Dixon (ECSHD) Sector Manager: Michal Rutkowski (ECSHD) Team Members: Jeanine Braithwaite (Team Leader), John Innes, Jennifer Manghinang (ECSHD); Mathew Verghis (ECSPE); Diane Steele (DECRG); Ayge Ayata, Sencer Ayata, Tahire Erman, Kivilcim Ozcan, Y. Ziya Ozcan (Consultants).  Turkey: Povertyand CopingAfter Crises Volume Two: Background Papers 1. The Economics o fPoverty. KivilcimMetinOzcan 1 2. Poverty inTurkey. Kivilcim Metin Ozcan 28 3. Poverty inTurkey; The Social Dimension. Tahire Erman 42 4. Measuring Poverty and Inequality inTurkey'. Yusuf Ziya Ozcan 72 5. The Benefit Dependent and the Regular Income Earning Poor: The 104 Analysis o fthe Interview Data. Sencer Ayata and Ayve Guneq Ayata. 6. Interim Report: Assessment o f Social Solidarity FundBeneficiaries 150 Middle Eastern Technical University, Department o f Sociology. .. 11   1. The Economics of Poverty (Kivilcim Metin Ozcan) I.THEORETICALFRAMEWORK Economic growth is an important factor determining poverty reduction. Economic growth improves the living standards o f poor people. The modem economic development made it possible that countries with similar rates o f growth might have very different rates o f poverty reduction. However, this casual relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction i s not valid all the time. Indeed, the relationship among the pattern o f growth, the changes in the distribution o f income and the rates o f poverty reduction is v ery complex due t o differences in growth and the distribution o f assets, state institutions o f varying quality andtheir economic policies, and finally the history, geography and culture o f countries. Therefore, each country should formulate different poverty reduction strategies (World Bank 2000 / 2001, p. 45). Another important causal link can be set up between growth and the income and non-income poverty. Initial inequalities in the distribution o f income also have some consequences for the economic growth o f countries. Highinitial inequalities reduce the poverty impact o f a given rate o f economic growth. There are two theoretical explanations regarding the effects o f inequality on growth. The first one suggests that greater inequality is useful for growth by redistributing income to the rich, who can save from the poor, who cannot. However empirical evidences suggest the second view; that is, lower inequality can increase efficiency and growth through variety o f channels, including political instability, populist redistributive policies, volatilities in several macroeconomic aggregates. This view also suggests that economic policies can lower growth. Evidence on the impact o f inequality in assets, land, education and gender i s clear inthe literature. Some studies have found a link betweeneducation and gender inequality and growth. IEvidence on the effect o f initial income inequality on growth is mixed. While some studies have found negative effects the others have found positive ones. As income poverty declines as average, incomes increase, therefore non- income poverty such as health education, decreases as well. There i s strong evidence that better health and education outcomes contribute to faster economic growth. The greatest poverty reductions would also be achieved through policies that reduce the gap between individuals with varying levels of education and skills. The question is why some individuals are able to accumulate human and physical capital to place themselves in a more favorable relative position compared to other individuals. This i s answered in the literature using alternative household savings theories and one can conclude that several subgroups o f the population behave in totally different ways, e.g., the total 30 percent o f the distribution are not able to acquire income-earning assets because they are subject to survival constraints while the richest tenpercent accumulate to be able to invest and maximize the value o ftheir financial holdings. Effects o f economic liberalization on poverty are also addressed in the literature considerably. In fact, the hypothesis is that the liberalization process provides greater opportunities to the individuals that were initially better endowed with human and physical capital and therefore contributes to increasing inequality and poverty. Szekely (1998) shows that those individuals better 1  endowed with human and physical capital benefited disproportionately more from the economic expansion duringthe reform period." In the following part (section 11) of this chapter, the major findings from the literature on poverty and poverty reduction will be investigated for the across region and c ountries, using the economic framework given above. Then the structure o f poverty in Turkey will be summarized in Section 111. 11. THE MAJORFINDINGSFROMTHE LITERATUREONCASE STUDIESOF POVERTY A- INCOME POVERTYBYREGION The world has deep poverty. Using absolute poverty concept"', o f the world's 6 billion people, 2.8 billion live on less than $2 a day, and 1.2 billion live on less than $1 a day, with 44 percent living in South Asia. Between 1987 and 1998, the share o f population in developing and transition economies living on less than $1 a day fell from 28 percent to 24 percent (see World Bank 2001 p.23 table 1.1). Because o f highpopulation growth, the number o f poor people changes very slowly. However, there are large regional variations regarding the number of poor people. The Middle East and North Africa have reduced their numbers in poverty. East Asia has reduced it dramatically. However, in all other regions the number o f people living on less than $1 a day has risen. In South Asia the number o f poor people rose from 474 million in 1987 to 522 million in 1998, while the share o f poverty fell from 45 percent to 40 percent. In Latin America and the Caribbean the number o f poor people rose by about 2 0 percent. InEurope and C entral A sia the number o f poverty increased from 1.1 million to 24 million. In Sub-Saharan Afiica the number o f poor people increased from 217 million to 291 million over a decade. Blackburn (1994) suggests that poverty comparisons can be very sensitive to how poverty lines are made comparable across countries.'" His findings show that poverty comparisons across industrialized nations can be quite sensitive to whether an absolute or relative concept o f poverty i s considered appropriate. Therefore, estimates o f poverty based on combination o f absolute and relative poverty concepts provide much higher poverty estimates although time trends remain unchanged (see World Bank 2000/2001, p.24, Table 1.2). This fact is also valid for the Middle East andNorth Africa (MENA) and for Europe and Central Asia. Sub-SaharanAfrica 217.2 290.9 46.6 46.3 Total 1,183.2 1,198.9 28.3 24.0 ExcludingChina 879.8 noc 7 Y O J . I I 90 c L0.J I L U . L ? L ? I *Figures depend on the absolute poverty line $1.08 a day at 1993 PPP. Figures takenfrom World Bank 2000/2001 Table 1.1p.23). **Provisional 2  Table 2 Relative Income Poverty by region, selected years, 1987 and 1998" Figures takenfrom WorldBank 2000/2001 Table 1.2p.24.** SeeWorldBank 2000/2001 for the definition of poverw line ***Provisional Detailed studies using national income poverty lines present very large variations inpoverty structure across countries within each region. What are the magnitude and pattems o f poverty in the developed and developing world? How has poverty evolved over the past decade? The rest o f this chapter describes the relationship between income growth, inequality and dimensions o f poverty. Poverty reduction across region and countries is also analyzed. B - DEVELOPED COUNTRTES Inthis section, papers analyzing the antipoverty effects of growth inthe UnitedStates and a couple o f other developed countries are included. They examine the relationship between macroeconomic conditions andpoverty. Discussions about the antipoverty effects o f growth both in the States and other developed countries have largely been predicted on John Kennedy's metaphor that a rising tide lifts all boats. However, in the following papers, it is shown that growth had large antipoverty effect through the early 1970's, but that the more recent experience has been different because growth rates have slowed and inequality has increased. Gottschalk and Danziger (1985) provide a framework for evaluating the effects o f economic growth and transfer incomes on poverty using Annual March Current Population Surveys (CPS) from 1968 to 1983- each containing information on about 50.000 households collected by U.S. Department o f Commerce. Findings show that in the U S economy during the 1967-79 period, changes in transfers were almost as important as increases in market incomes for all persons. Transfers w ere 1ess important for non-aged men, but v ery important for elderly. S ince 1979, the decline in market incomes has increased poverty and the antipoverty effect o f transfer growth has declined. Rising inequality increased poverty during the period o f growth as well as during the recession. 3  Intheir follow up study, Danziger and Gottschalk (1986 ) also analyze the impactof secular and cyclical changes on poverty in the U.S economy using Census of Population Reports, for the years 1950-1980 for households headed by men aged from 25 to 64. It has been emphasized that there are limits to the antipoverty effects of improved economic conditions. Risinginequality during 1970's and 1980's was a major factor contributing to increases inpoverty. Growth has a diminishing impact as povertyrates fall. Inthe absence o f an unexpected increase inthe rate o f economic growth or an unforeseen decline in inequality, it seems unlikely that growth will substantially reduce poverty inthe near future. Sawhill (1988) examines poverty in the U.S and answers the question on why it i s so persistent? Inthis study Sawhill uses Current Population Survey, U.S. Bureau o f the Census (1987), Panel Study o f Income Dynamics, Survey o f Income and Education and Survey o f Income and Program Participation. Findings show that income poverty declined only modestly after the mid- 1960s and actually increased inrelative terms. A dverse demographic trends, high unemployment rates o f the early 1 9 8 0 ' ~failure o f average real incomes to grow very much over the past 20 years ~ are some o f the facts to explain the rather modest progress in poverty reduction. There i s considerable uncertainty about how effective the anti-poverty programs were. There was a decline in poverty among the elderly, induced by the growth o f social insurance programs. Within the non- elderly population, the distributiono f earnings became more unequal and pre-transfer poverty rates increased. Balke and Slottje (1993) study the relationship between poverty and change in the macroeconomic aggregates by estimating a dynamic macroeconometric model. They use U.S Bureau o f the Census, Current Population Reports(C.P.R) for 1959-1989 and poverty data for 1947- 1958 were obtained from an unpublished study by Gordon Fisher of the Census Bureau. Balke and Slottje (1993) found that in the U S economy the unemployment rate, transfers payments, money supply growth and inflation have significant direct contemporaneous effects on the growth rate o f poverty. Only inflation has a significant lagged impact on poverty growth. The white poverty subgroup yields results consistent with the overall poverty model. For blacks, poverty appears to be less sensitive to shocks in the economy and transfers appear to have stronger impact on black poverty over time. Pendakur (2001) examines consumption poverty in Canada, for the period o f 1969-1998. In this study, poverty rate i s estimated as t o the proportion o f individualsw h o have consumption- rather than income- lower than an absolute poverty line. As for income poverty measures, the consumption poverty rate declined over the 1970's and 1 9 8 0 ' ~in~other words, all boats rose in the risingtide. However, the 1990s show a different picture. The consumption poverty rate increased by more than half between 1992 and 1998. The situation was even worse for children. The rate o f consumption poverty among childrenmore than doubled between 1992 and 1998. Trends in China in 1996-1998 period are very sensitive to the choice o f welfare and poverty measures which based on the $1 a day line. However consumption based poverty measure shows a poverty reductionbetween 1996 and 1998, suggestingthat poor householdsandpoor people inrural areas had beensaving a large share o f their incomes (World bank 2000/2001, p.26). Chen and Wang (2001) also investigate China's economic growth and poverty reduction by 1ooking at the trends between 1990 and 1999. Poverty declined significantly in the 1990's and there was a slight increase in the poverty headcount between 1997 and 1999. Economic growth contributed significantly to poverty reduction, rising inequality worsened rural and urban income distributions. The poor benefited far less thanthe rich from the economic growth. 4  C- DEVELOPING COUNTMES I)EuropeandCentralAsia Income, inequality, and povertyduring the transition from planned t o market economy is examined by Milanovic(1998). The study covers eighteen post-communist countries, seven in Eastern Europe and eleven former Soviet states, from the period o f 1987-88 until 1996, using the best empirical data to be found, largely drawn from various World Bank studies. In the course o f transition, real per capita income increased in one single country, Slovenia, which was not part o f the Soviet Bloc. The greatest declines were recorded inMoldova and Kyrgyzstan, where per capita incomes fell by two-thirds. Personal incomes fell less than GDP, because both social transfers in cash and private incomes rose sharply. Contrary to the expectation, the share ofhealth and education inthe GDP increased by about 2 and 3 percent inbothEastern Europe and Slavic Republics ofthe former Soviet Union. Inequality increased in all countries in the region with the exception o f Slovakia. Inequality did not increase significantly on average. It was only approaching the OECD average, but the increase in inequality was very sharp, and the dispersal of income differentiation increased sharply (Aslund, 1999). Certain former Soviet countries, notably Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, attained Latin American levels o f inequality (Gini coefficients at 0.56 in 1996) while Slovakia remain as one o f the most equal countries in the World. In short, Eastern Europe maintains a comparatively low Europeandegree o f inequality, whereas income differentiation is greater inthe former Soviet Union. UsingUkraniandata Kakwani(1995) analyses the trends inincome inequality, welfare andpoverty. The standard o f living increased significantly inthe late 1 9 8 0 ' ~and then fell inthe 1990's. Income ~ inequality declined inthe 1980's, to rise again in 1991-92. Poverty declined over the period o f 1980- 91, from 38 percent o f the population to 9 percent. But in 1992, 30 percent o f the population was poor again. World Bank (2000/2001, p. 25) also suggested that in Europe and Central Asia the proportion o f the population living on less than $2 a day ranges from less than 5 percent inBelarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithonia, Poland and Ukraine to 19 percent inRussia, 49 percent inthe Kyrgyz Republic and 68 percent inTajikistan. It shows incredible variation from one country to the others. The main cause o f the higher inequality is wages as they are unequal everywhere, especially inthe former Soviet Union. Social transfers enhance equality inEastern Europe. However, inRussia andUkraine, social transfers are focused on wealth. Indeed, o f all non-pension cash social transfers, only 12 percent goes to the poorest quintile inRussia and 8 percent in Ukraine. Pensioners are the main winner o f the transition. They have gained more compared to workers and farmers. The unemployed and the farmers are most likely to be poor everywhere. Milanovic (1998) calculates that the total number o f the poor in eighteen countries rose twelve-fold from 14 million before the transition or about 4 percent o f the population, to 168 millionbetween 1993 and 1995. Many arejust below the poverty line and they are very well education. An analysis ofpovertyin Slovenia usingthe 1993 HouseholdBudget Survey is implemented by Pentaraki andMergos (1999). Datawas gathered throughthe 1993 surveyo fthe Statistical Office of the Republic o f Slovenia. The analysis i s related to the socio-economic characteristics o f Slovenian households. The major finding o f the study i s that 17.9 percent o f the Slovenia sample i s classified as poor. 5  The social safety net in Hungary and other transition economies has undergone significant changes. The traditional measure for poverty in Hungary was the subsistence minimum which has lost much o f its relevance because o f the transition to a market economy. Using 1992-1995 Household Budget and Panel Surveys, Rudolf and Zsolt (1996) and Grootaert (1997) analyze poverty and social transfers inHungary. Grootaert proposes two benchmarks: the minimum pension set by an absolute poverty line and a relative poverty line set at two-thirds o f mean household spending. Although unemployment benefits and social assistance are well-targeted to the poor, Grootaert still distinguishes six components o f social safety net as pensions, unemployment benefits, family allowances, child care allowance, social assistance and child care fee. Approximately 91 percent o f households receive one or more transfers. Hungary's social safety net represents 54 percent o f spending in an average household, and provides 38 percent o f spending in an average income. The average transfer i s eight times smaller than that would be needed under perfect targeting. T herefore, there is s ignificant room for reallocating funds for improved w elfare o f the poor. Since January 1990, Poland's social safety net has changed. Unemployment benefits have been introduced and the cost o f social safety net has risen sharply both absolutely and as a fraction o f GDP. To analyze the effects o f the new system on income distribution, Grootaert (1995) uses Household Budget Survey Data for January-June 1993. H e examines the relationship between poverty and social transfers in Poland. In 1993, 26.3 percent o f the population had an expenditure level below the minimumwage, and 14.4 percent spent at a level below the minimumpension. This study discusses proposals which are budget-neutral or which imply only modest increases inthe total amount o f transfers, for improving the ability o f social transfers to reduce poverty. Falkingham (1999) examines welfare in transition, trends in poverty and well-being in Central Asia's five Republics o f former Soviet Central Asia- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and the Republic o f Azerbaijan. The regional population faces severe economic, physical and psychological stress. Over half of the population lives inpoverty, real wages have fallen, unemployment has increased, school enrolment has dropped and general health has deteriorated. 11)Sub-Saharan Africa During 1990s, among seven African countries, four (Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) experienced an increase in poverty, while three (Ghana, Mauritania, and Uganda) had decline. Ghana is the country that has been extensively investigated with regard to poverty and its reduction among the other African countries. Canagarajah and Coulombe (1997) examine the relationship among employment, labor markets and poverty in Ghana This study particularly analyses the changes during e conomic decline and recovery periods. The formal s ector is only a small part o f Ghana's labor market. This should be taken into account in forming a n appropriate employment policy. An active labor policy and employment creation is necessary for sustainable poverty reduction. Inthe other study, Canagarajah, Mazumdar and Ye (1998) examine the structure o f poverty reduction in Ghana, for the period o f 1988-92 and the determinants o f inequality. Three rounds o f the Ghana Living Standard Survey between 1988 and 1992 are used. Findings suggest that the adjustment policies, aiming at decreasing public sector employment and stimulating activities in the 6  private sector, succeeded in raising the living standards in the rural areas and cities but not in the capital city. Thus, an integrated regional study, taking into account the local socioeconomic structure, i s necessary. Finally, Blunch and Verner (2000) investigate the link between poverty and child labor in Ghana. The findings prove that the positive relationship between poverty and child labor i s reinstated. There i s evidence o f a gender gap in child labor linked to poverty. Girls are consistently found to be more likely to engage in harmfil child labor than boys. The incidence o f child labor increases with age, especially for girls. Grootaert, Kanbur and Oh (1995) investigate the dynamics o f poverty in Cote d'Ivoire. In urban areas o f Cote d'Ivoire, human capital is the most important endowment explaining welfare changes over time. Inrural areas, physical capital matter the most. Households whose heads worked in the public sector maintained welfare better than other households. Migrant non-Ivorian households tend to be better at preventingwelfare losses compared to Ivorian households. Mackinnon and Reinikka (2000) summarize the lessons from Uganda's Strategies to Fight Poverty. Uganda was one o f the first low-income countries to prepare comprehensive national strategy for poverty reduction usinga participatory approach. Ugandabenefited from the new World Bank-International monetary Fund approach to strengthen the impact on poverty o f occasional assistance in low-income countries. The new approach features a more inclusive participatory process for helping recipient countries to develop poverty reduction strategies which would bring the Bank-Fund assistance to the country. 111) LatinAmerica andthe Caribbean Poverty and poverty reduction policies in Latin America and the Caribbean were extremely poor in 1996. Inequality also remained high (weighted average of Gini at 0.56) in 1996. The elasticity o f poverty to growth was unitary. The high level o f poverty was inpart due to the adverse impact o f macroeconomic shocks. The poor were socially excluded and the state institutions were not sufficiently pro-poor. Available national poverty estimates for Latin America showed that between 1989 and 1996 poverty rate fell in Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras and rose inMexico and Venezuela. Inanother group o f countries for which only urban surveys were available, poverty rate rose inEcuador, s tayed st able inUruguay, and fell inArgentina, Bolivia, Colombia and Paraguay (see World bank 2000/2001, p. 25). Wodon et.al (2001) examine trends (1986-1998) and determinants of poverty in Latin America. In 1998, about a third o f the population was poor, and one sixth extremely poor. Such household characteristics as demographics, education, employment, geographic factors, location, migration and ethnicity have large impacts on the probability o f beingpoor or extremely poor. Hentschel, Waters and Webb(l996) study rural poverty in Ecuador by using a rural Qualitative Assessment o f living conditions in rural communities in three o f Ecuador's diverse regions. The findings indicate that rural communities with the same characteristics (such as area, soil quality and ethnic background) are very heterogeneous in their command o f land resources, definition o f well being, range o f economic activities and recommendations for what i s needed to overcome poverty. Intimes o f hardship, families complement income from traditional sources such 7  as subsistence agriculture and small animal husbandry with earnings from new activities. Spending less on food is alarming as malnutrition rate in Rural Ecuador i s already very high. Poor rural families demand very practical solutions to reduce poverty. They suggest measures that will make available land and human resources more productive inorder to overcome poverty. Gragnolati (1999) examine the relationship between children's growth and poverty in rural Guatemala. Gragnolati shows that poor child growth outcomes in Guatemala are the result o f widespread poverty. The better the parent's level o f education and household income are, the less the children suffer from malnutrition. Children are cared better where there are better community infrastructure and health care facilities. The effects o f economic liberalization on poverty are addressed in the literature to a great extent. It is hypothesized that the liberalization process provides greater opportunities to the individuals that were initially better endowed with human and physical capital and therefore contributes to increasing inequality and poverty. Szekely (1998) shows that those individuals better endowed with human and physical capital benefited disproportionately more from the economic expansion during the reform period, thus confirming the working hypothesis, using ten household surveys spanning 42 years (from 1950-1992) and concentrating particularly on the last three surveys from 1984 to 1992 that cover the reform era inMexico. The effects o f poverty alleviation programs were largely ineffective inMexico during the reform era (Szekely (1998). Thus, the liberalization in Mexico contributed to greater poverty and inequality. Cord and Wodon (2001) look for an answer to the following question: D o agricultural programs inMexico alleviate Poverty? The evidence from the Ejido S ector which is based ona panel survey for the sector inMexico for the years 1994 and 1997 indicates that [l] participation in PROCAMPO-"a cash transfer per hectare o f cultivated land" program-significantly reduces the likelihood that a ejido household will be poor and the program may have a positive multiplier effect on household income and that [2] ALIANZA-a matching grant program for investments in agriculture- has no significant impact on poverty. IV) East Asia and The Pacific East Asia poverty trends in the 1990s were influenced by the impact o f economic crisis. Poverty increased inIndonesia, Republic of Korea and Thailand, while inVietnam poverty based on national poverty line decreased from 58 percent in 1993 to 37 percent in 1998. Suryahadi et. a1 (2000) evaluate poverty during the crisis in Indonesia for the period between o f 1996-99 by using Susenas surveys. This study shows that poverty increased from 11.34 percent in 1996 to 18.9 percent in 1999. Datt and Hoogeveen (2000) investigate poverty and income distribution in the Philippines using 1998 Household Survey Data. The recent economic crisis led to a 5 per cent reduction in average living standards and a 9 percent increase in the incidence o f poverty. There is evidence o f consumption smoothing by the households affected by the crisis, but the poor were less able to protect their consumption. 8  V) SouthAsia Poverty reduction also varied in South Asia in the 1990s. Bangladesh showed good performance owing to the good rice crop in 1988-1989 despite the terrible floods o f the same year. Wodon (1999) examines growth, poverty and inequality using a regional panel data for Bangladesh. Wodon shows that growth reduces poverty inboth urban and rural areas. Growth i s associated with rising inequality only inurban areas. Promoting growth inrural areas rather than urban areas would reduce poverty more. Pakistan and Sri Lanka made almost no progress in poverty reduction in 1990s. Some aspects o f poverty in Sri Lanka are investigated by Datt and Gunewardena (1997) for the period o f 1985-90 using 1985-86 and 1990-91 household surveys. Poverty in Sri Lanka i s largely a rural phenomenon. Between 1986 and 1991, national poverty rates declined modestly, due to a decline in rural poverty. But, urban poverty increased. Poorer households tend to have higher dependency ratios, fewer years o f schooling, lower participation in the labor force, and significantly higher unemployment. Datt and Ravallion (1996) try to find out why some Indian States did better than others at reducingrural poverty? Datt and Ravallion use pooled state-level data for 1957-91. Findings suggest that reducing rural poverty requires both economic growth (farm and non-farm) and humanresource development. Jayaraman and Lanjouw (1998) calculate inequality in Indian villages and analyze the evolution o f poverty by using longitudinal village survey data. Results reveal that if India i s to continue reducing rural poverty, it is essential to have continued agricultural growth, diversification into non-agricultural activities and awareness o fpersisting inequality within villages. VI) MiddleEast andNorthAfrica The rural economy o f developing countries used to be regarded as synonymous with agriculture but in recent years this view has been changing. Such diverse activities like commerce and services can be seen as providing some income in rural households. Applying decomposition analysis and using household level data from Egypt and Jordan, Adams( 2001) examine the effects o f non-farm income on inequality and poverty in rural Egypt and Jordan. Non-farm income decreases inequality in Egypt and increases it in Jordan. The poor in both countries depend heavily on government employment t o decrease inequality. InEgypt, c ultivated 1and b ase is v ery highly productive, thus Egypt's large rural population seeks access to land. Unlike the rich in Egypt, those inrural Jordan earn less than 10percent of their total per capita income from agriculture and more than 55 percent o f it from non-farm sources. 9  References Adams R.H. (2001) Nonfarm Income, Inequality, and Poverty in Rural Egypt and Jordan" Policy ResearchWorking Paper 2572, World Bank, Washington, D.C. Aslund, A. (1999) "Review Of: Income, Inequality, and Poverty duringthe Transition from planned to Market Economy" Journal of Economic Literature, vol. 37 3, 1186-1187. Balke, N. S. And Slottje, D. J. (1993), " Poverty and Change in the Macroeconomy: Macroeconometric Model", The Review o f Economics and Statistics, Vol. 75, Issuel, pp. 117-122. Bhorat, H. 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Evidence from Cross Country Regressions" Policy Research Report on Gender and Development Working Paper Series no. 7 World Bank, Washington D.C. Mackinnon J.and Reinikka R., 2000, "Lessons from Uganda on Strategies to Fight Poverty" Policy ResearchWorking Paper 2440 ,World Bank, WashingtonD.C. Blackbum, M.L.(1994) " International Comparisons o f poverty" The American Economic Review, Vol. 84, issue 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Hundredand Sixth Annual meeting o f the American Economic Association, 371-374. 11  Milanovic, B. (1998) Income, Inequality, and Poverty during the Transition from Plannedto market Economy, Regional and Sectoral Studies. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. Pendakur K.,2001, " Consumption Poverty in Canada,1969-1998", Canadian Public Policy, June 2001, v.27, iss 2, pp.125-49 Pentaraki K.N. and Mergos G.J., 1999, "An Analysis o f Poverty in Slovenia Using the 1993 Household Budget Survey", East-West Series in Economics, Business, and Environment 1999, v.2, iss. 1-2, pp. 96-104 Rudolf A. andZsolt, S. (1996), "Poverty in Hungary in 1992-1995", Review of Sociology o f the Hungarian Sociological Association, specialissue, pp.3-29. Sawhill, I.V. (1988), "Poverty in the U.S.: Why I s I t so Persistent? " Journal of Economic Literature, vol. 26, issue 3, pp. 1073-1119. Sen, A. K.( 1976), "Poverty: an 0rdinalApproach t o Measurement ",E conometrica, v 01.44, pp. 219-231. Suryahadi A., Sumarto S., Suharso Y. and Pritchett L, 2000, " 2435. The Evolution of Poverty during the Crisis in Indonesia, 1996-99 ", Policy Research Working Paper 2193, World Bank, Washington D.C. Szekely,M. (1998) The Economic Poverty, Inequality and Wealth accumulation in Mexico, St Antony's Series. New York: St. Martin's Press; London: Macmillan Press; in association with St. Antony's College. Thomas ,V. and Wang Y. (1998) " Missing Lessons of East Asia: Openness, Education and the Environment" Paper presented at Annual Bank Conference on Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, World Bank, June, Montevideo. World Bank 2000 / 2001, World Development Report 2000 / 2001 Attacking Poverty, New York: OxfordUniversity Press Wodon Q., 1999, "Growth, Poverty and Inequality: A Regional Panel", Policy Research Working Paper, World Bank, Washington D.C. Wodon Q. et.al, 2001, "Poverty in Latin America: Trends (1986-1998) and Determinants", Cuademos de Economia, August 2001, v. 38, iss. 114, pp. 127-53 Endnotes: Thomas and Wang 1998; Klasen 1999; Dollar and Gatti1999 12  Szekely(1998) argues that the financial liberalization ( key element o f the new strategy inMexico) failed to ease the liquidity constraints for most households - benefiting only the richest quintile of the population. ... 111The literature on poverty measurement has grown apace since Sen's seminal paper, (Sen 1976). A useful survey i s provided by Foster (1984) iv They made international comparisons of poverty using Luxemburg Income Study (LIS) data 11 industrialized nations inthe 1984- 1987 period. " The level of aggregation is an important component in the analysis of poverty measurement. Utilizing the Headcount Index and cumulative distribution functions, Bhorat (1999) examined earnings among individuals and households o f South Africa. It is shown that property measures at the individual level compared to the estimates at the household level will transmit differential rankings of indigence. Both are important predictors o f poverty and hence should be coupled when tryingto understandlow earnings indifferent societies. vi The characteristics associated with poverty through the construction of poverty profiles are found to be educational and occupational disparitiesas well as geographic and demographic characteristics ( Szekely 1998) 13  APPENDIX I:POVERTY AND INCOME INEQUALITY MEASURES Internationally ComparableAbsolute Poverty Line (the "One -Dollar-A-Day Per Capita Line)': For absolute poverty line a minimum food basket composed o f number o f commodities which can be chosen regarding the consumption habits o f an adult can be used. Then, generally, monthly cost o f food basket i s calculated int e m s o fboth domestic currency and also interms o f its dollar equivalent. Per capita poverty line can be adjusted for purchasing power parity (in certain base year prices) amounted to a value in terms o f domestic currency per period o f interest. The cost o f this minimum food basket allowances for non-food items, as suggestedby actual consumption patterns o f the less affluent can be added to arrive at the economic vulnerability line. Household whose monthly consumption i s below the absolute line or the economic vulnerability line are considered to be absolutely poor or economically vulnerable respectively. Inthis measure, poverty lines o f other countries are also set in order to maintain a constant purchasingpower o f the poverty lines across countries. For converting currencies, a set o f international price indexes are required. This i s not an indicator o f aggregate poverty but it can help to revealboth the risk and the patterns o fpoverty. Relative Poverty Line2:The relative line i s set at one-half o f the monthly median expenditure per equivalent adult. Household with monthly income less than the corresponding relative line are called relatively poor. This measure suggests choosing a poverty line which varies according to the average income o f each country. Relative poverty lines are established as a fraction o f medianincome o f the society as a whole. Relative poverty comparisons are mainly comparisons o f the dispersion o f income at the low end o f the distribution. This allows overall poverty and poverty among groups to be studied. Income Gap3;The other measure o f poverty i s the average income gap. This i s defined as the difference between the poverty lines and the disposable income o f the poor, as a percentage o f the poverty line. Gini Index4:This is the index o f the distribution o f income among the poor. Gini Index is a function o f the rank order weighted sum o f individual income shares. Gini index is drived from the Lorenz curve, which plots cumulative shares o f the population, from the poorest upwards, against the cumulative share o fincomes that they earn. Sen Index'; The other measure o fpoverty i s Sen Index. This index is defined as the Head- Count Ratio (i s the percentage o f p ersons with a n equivalent household disposable income below a poverty line) multiplied by the sum o f the income gap ratio and Gini Coefficient o f the poor weighted by 1 minus the income gap ratio. The Sen index o f relative poverty reflects the implication o f some poor individuals having incomes which deviate from the poverty lines by more than i s the case with other poor individuals. 1-2 -3 Blackbum, M.L, International Comparisons o f Poverty, The American Economic Review, V.84, Issue 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Hundredand Sixth Annual Meeting o f the American Economic Association (May, 1994), 371-374 ECO/WKP(98)2 4-5 Clark S., HemmingR., Ulph D., On Indices o f the Measurement o f Poverty, The Economic Journal, V. 91, Issue 362 (June 198l), 515-526 ECO/WKP(98)2 14  n n n 3 w m v, 3  UY UY 0 cd .s .9 8 n n N M Lr.  a;, . % $ n n m * nIA F Gj 3  n nn d c\Im 1 3 . f 'U b a  E n + nN n n n 4 " P  0 a .$t n n n n h + + c \ l m * * 0  n n n n n n 3 c\1 m " N m  3 n n n n 3 N " N N 3 N ha, 9 9 d 00 2. m 2 h zl 8 2 cd .i Y W 3 n2  v) e, 3 ? s b v, uj e, .i 21 cd s Y v) 3 e, ti 3 d, c.' cd Y % v) 3 0 pc 0  a 5 -Elf w s0 P .I4 d E51 &.a Ycd 43 3a 4 4cd .,-ba 8 2 2D  m  n 4 hh 3 + N m 0 c, agcd w m I I  I cz. n N   2. Poverty in Turkey (Kivilcim Metin Ozcan) The development level o f a country is mainly determined by the income inequality between the rich and the poor living inthat country. Inequality matters because it determines how the benefits o f growth are to be distributed and who receives the benefits o f that growth. If poverty was a concern, economic growth would be the main tool to alleviate it. Growth mostly affects the top o f the distribution and may improve poverty very little. An increase in inequality may reduce the positive effect o f growth. However, when there are significant improvements in the distribution o f income, even very slow growth may have a big impact on growth. Although there i s no single inequality measure, one potential measure can be defined as the relationship between the incomes o f the rich (persons at the 90thpercentile o f the distribution) and those o f the poor (those at thelothpercentile) or decile ratio. It i s common to break decile ratio into its bottom and top portions: the distance between the poor and the middle class (or median); and the distance between the middle class (median) and the rich. The second measure i s a single coefficient that gives an integral view o f the overall distribution o f income or consumption between households in a survey. The most well known i s the Gini index, which i s mostly sensitive to the middle of the income distribution. The higher the value o f Gini coefficient is, the more unequal the distribution is. Finally, inequality can be interpreted...as the inequality in shares o f total incomes. The population is dividedinto equal groups"' with different levels o f income or consumption and the share o f total income or consumption accruing each group i s calculated as an inequality measure. Turkey is a country with large inequalities. Income differentials across regions, provinces and social groups are wide and persistent. The distribution o f income inequality between 1987 and 1994 remained the same using Household Income and Consumption Expenditure Survey (HICES)" o f 1987 and 1994. When we look at provinces rather than households, we see that Turkish provinces are diverging in an absolute sense inthat rich areas are gettingricher, while the poor ones are gettingpoorer. Inthe following subsection, the trends in inequality and the factors affecting inequality will bediscussed indetail. I)Dimensions,TrendsandtheSourcesofInequality Inequality in Turkey i s above the median for upper and upper middle income economies. The social distance between the poor and the rich inTurkey i s higher than in other countries." Inequality is coming from the bottom and the top o f the distribution. The income o f rich people i s almost 7 times higher than that o f the poor. Indeed, inequality in Turkey is high and close to the levels observed in economies such as Peru or Russia. Inequality in Turkey is not as high as Latin American countries but it is higher than the levels o f inequality observed in Central European and Mediterranean countries (see World Bank 2000, p. 19). 28  A decomposition o f inequality by sources o f income shows that labor income (wages and self employment income) i s the main driving force o f inequality. Labor account for 77 percent o f the total income inequality between households in Turkey. Income from self-employment i s especially unevenly distributed (World Bank 2000, p.19 Table 2). Capital and property income i s also unequally distributedwhile it represents a small share o f total income. Wage differentials in Turkey largely reflect the differences in education ,gender, experience and occupational status. Much o f the observed inequality in wages also reflects the differences in endowments, productivity or working conditions. One o f the most striking facts o f the last two decades in high and middle income countries alike, i s the rise in the wage premium for education. This can be seen as a sign o f rising demand for skilled labor. Given the relatively modest increase inthe wage premium by education and slow changes in the structure o f employment, calculated Gini coefficient for wages increased very little between 1987 and 1994: from 0.395 to 0.418. This can be defined as highbut stable inequality. Ifone excludes university level education ,wage differentials between education groups appear to have increased. Therefore rising educational differentials could be one factor contributing to higher wage inequality in Turkey (see World Bank 2000, p.29). There is very little redistribution o f income through either transfers or safety nets. None o f the sources o f household income in Turkey contributes to reducing inequality. Although State transfers which regressively distributed the sources o f income, play a n important role in preventing some groups such as the elderly, from falling into poverty, the rich still receive a larger share than the poor. Rural and urban differences are also important determinant o f inequality in Turkey. The differences between urban and rural areas account for more than 10 percent o f the total inequality in Turkey. These differences are due to the existence o f large and growing productivity differentials between agriculture and the rest o f the economy. Therefore, the income o f the rural households is much lower than that o f the urban households. Filiztekin(l999) summarizes a number o f factors that can be attributed to inequality between regions as: inter-regional differences inaverage GDP p er c apita t o differences in sectoral structure and differences inproductivity across sectors.Vi Filiztekin also finds large cross regional differences inproductivity within the same sector: not only poor regions have 1arger share o f their resources engaged inagriculture, but they also exhibitmuchlower productivity within agriculture thanricher regions. The comparison o f the 1987 and 1994 HICES reveals that income inequality for household monetary income increased significantly duringthis period. This can be due to the impact o f macroeconomic imbalances and structural changes in the economy. Whether the existing income differences increase or fall inthe future depends mainly on the ability o f Turkish Government eliminating macroeconomic imbalances and 29  improving its redistributive policies and the most importantly targeting o f its social transfers. Inflation has a significant distributional impact on inequality by affecting both within wage inequality and relative factor incomes.v11Since consumption data from 1987 and 1994 surveys are not directly comparable, it i s not meaningful to compare consumption inequality. The Gini coefficient for household money income increased from 0.411 to 0.453, which corresponds approximately to 10 percent increase in 7 yearsviii However, inequality in total income increased much less. The Gini coefficient for total income did not change between 1987 and 1994 and quintiles shares remained stable despite highlyvolatile economic conditions. Both He(1999) and World Bank(2000 p.26) suggest that the impact o f inflation on the poor is transitory. Unanticipatedjumps ininflation or periods o f accelerating inflation hurtthe poor andworsen the distribution. But,nominalincome adjusts to new stable level o f inflation quickly due to the wage indexation mechanisms which might help to explain why, Turkey's income distribution has not deteriorated despite years ofhigh inflation. However, theoretically, high inflation, even if it i s stable, i s bound to have a negative impact on poverty and inequality inthe longrunthrough its dampening effect on growth. State transfers by households are also other important determinants o f inequality and they are classified basically under four headings, namely, state pensions, tax return, old age income and scholarships and in-kindtransfers from the state in the 1994 HICES (see Table 1below). Some important transfer programs such as agriculture subsidies, are aimed at producers rather than households and therefore are not represented in the 1994 HICES. The most important state transfer i s pensions, which are rather unequally distributed with the richest 20 percent receiving almost 50 percent o f all pensions. The pension system in Turkey is designed as an insurance scheme; it has almost no redistributive aim. To an extent, pensions are determined by past contributions and therefore past wages, a larger fraction, i s bound to accrue to the top o f the distribution .Pensions are important since they prevent certain groups o f population, particularly the elderly, from falling into poverty. However, not many pensioners are that old as a result o f the absence o f a minimum retirement age and a short period o f minimum contribution.ix Similar to pension, old-age income transfers and scholarships appear to be unequally distributed. Incontrast, in-kindtransfers from the State favor the poor, but they are small interms of their impact on household income (see World Bank 2000, p.32). Table 1 Incidence analysis: Distributionof State Transfers by HouseholdIncome - Note: Table is obtainedfrom World Bank 2000, p. 31 and annual income datafor 1994,from SISAnnual Income Survey. 30  Income inequality andpoverty are two highlyrelated concepts and they are isomorphic to each other. Ifgroup of countries and societies suffer from severe income inequality, one can expect highpoverty problemas well. Therefore, poverty andpoverty reduction gain importance and should be separately analyzed. Although, many studies were conducted on inequalityo f income distribution or determinants o f income regarding Turkisheconomy using 1983, 1987 and 1994income and consumption surveys data, studies on poverty and poverty reduction inTurkey are quite rare and recent. Inthe following section, studies ofpoverty and poverty reductioninTurkey will be summarized. 11) Dimensionsand CharacteristicsofpovertyinTurkey Earlier studies o f poverty in Turkey by Dansuk (1997), Dumanli (1996), Erdogan (1997), Erdogan (1998), Uygur and Kasnakoglu (1998) use HICES data to show relative and absolute poverty deprivation in Turkey. However, with the exception o f Erdogan (1997, 1998), none o f these studies use data for the whole country from both recent surveys. With a different approach, Akder (1999) uses aggregated geographical data at the level o f administrative districts to arrive at a poverty map o f Turkey based on the Human Development Index. Studies on poverty have been carried out by using the household income and c onsumption surveys, and major studies on finding the poverty line and poverty rate inTurkey are summarizedbelow indetail. Income distribution and structural change The first study t o investigate t he problem o f income distribution and structural change inthe Turkish Economy is Dagdemir (1992). Inhis study, Dagdemir investigates the problem o f poverty and the socioeconomic structure o f poverty. H e uses absolute poverty criteria and the criteria o f earning less than the average level o f income in this study. H e stresses the fact that, in order to attain a fair level of income distribution, it i s necessary to increase the living standards o f the poor. Table 2 illustrates that during the 1968-1987 period, poverty declined and the income share of the poorest 40 percent and 60 percent in the total level o f income increased by 5.3 percent and 8.3 percent respectively (see Table 2). Table 2 also clearly shows that the percentage o f households who earn less than the average level o f income decreased from 49.1 percent to 34.2 percent during the two decades. It i s reported that poverty i s mostly common among the households who earn wage income ( see Table 3). Dagdemir identifies strong trade-off between growth and poverty reduction and points out that, the planned period showed poverty reduction, which corresponds to the period when a sustainable economic growth was achieved. Therefore, he concludes that in order to alleviate poverty, income distribution should be improved, and production capacity and growth rate o f income shouldbeincreased. 31  Table 2: Householdsat the povertyline. 1968 1973 1987 Poverty Line (TL) 6.940 12.000 1.357.000 Income share of the poorest 40% (%) 9.5 11.5 14.8 Income share o f the poorest 60% %) 20.6 24.0 28.9 Households who earn less than the average level of Income (%) 49.1 41.6 34.2 Absolute poverty (%) 51.5 38.4 22.5 Table 3: The Socio-economicstructureof povertyaccordingto thejob status of the householdhead(1987) Acc. to the criteria of earning less Acc. to the absolute poverty criteria Job statue of the than average level of income household head Within the Within all the Withinthe Withinall the Group (%) Poor (%) Group (%) Poor (%) Wage earner 48.5 52.46 36.23 51.71 Self-employed 35.12 46.32 28.45 47.15 Employer 6.67 1.22 3.54 1.15 Source: Dagdemir (1992) The impactof regionalfactors on inequality Inhis study, Dumanli(1996) reports the dimensions ofpoverty over years across several regions using 1987 HICES data. The poverty lines are computed by calculating the minimum amounts of calorie needed, which i s a very frequently used method o f finding the poverty lines'. It was found out that as of year 1987, Eastem and South Eastem regions had to fight poverty -both at household level and individual level- much more severely than the other regions (see Table 4). It is also observed from the poverty lines in terms o f U S dollars that poverty in Turkey reveals an upward trend during the 1987-1994 period; the annual figure being 332.2 $ inyear 1987, and 541.4 $ inyear 1994 (see Table 5). 32  II Table 4: Poverty in Rural and Urban Regions in Turkey (YO),1987. Urban Regions I1Rural+Urban Household I individual iI Rural household I Individual 1 household I individual Aegean- 3.74 3.01 5.43 4.36 0.00 0.00 Marmara Medit. 19.80 18.55 22.27 21.03 14.36 13.00 Central 32.01 26.30 29.14 23.33 38.33 32.9 Anatolia Black Sea 10.49 8.34 11.28 8.76 8.75 7.41 East & 33.97 43.80 31.88 42.53 38.57 46.64 , Southeast , Anatolia Source: Dumanli (1996) Annual Years T.L U.S. $ 1987 284.700 332.2 1988 473.405 332.2 1989 777.085 365.0 1990 1.388.433 532.4 1991 2.135.740 513.4 1992 3A30.809 556.2 1993 6.433.490 585.6 1994* 14.696.360 541.4 Inthis study, by using 1987 HICES data for consumption expenditures, poverty rates are computed by accepting the minimum level o f consumption expenditure as the poverty line. Also, the differences in price levels and calories across regions are taken into account and "regional absolute poverty lines and rates" are calculated (see Table 6). Results show that regarding the regional characteristics, absolute poverty rates change from one region to another and from rural to urban substantially. 33  Poverty lines (T.L/ month) Poverty rate (%) Regions Urban Rural Urban Rural Total Aegean 27.202 23.348 16.26 5.43 9.56 Mediterranean. 24.160 21.457 11.79 26.2 1 20.72 Central Anatolia 24.595 21.744 29.84 22.16 25.09 Black Sea 22.723 21.349 6.71 10.91 9.3 1 East & Southeast 22.340 20.246 35.4 35.28 35.32 Anatolia L I I I I I I Source: Dansuk (1997) Erdogan (1996) also computes several poverty lines and the number o f households below these poverty lines for: a) Turkey as a whole b) Ruralregions o fTurkey c) Urbanizedregions o f Turkey d) Seven geographical regions o fTurkey separately using 1994HICES data. The cost o f food baskets - that give the minimum amount o f calorie needed to survive- is computed separately for each regional classification using several different methods. These costs are compared to the household expenditure on food and total household expenditure. I n thefirst method, namely minimum food expenditure approach, households who cannot even cover the cost o f the food baskets are determined and they are classified as "extremely poor".x' I n the second method, namely basic needs approach, the minimum level o f income that the households need are determined by taking into account the necessary amount o f expenditure on housing, clothing, transportation and hrniture besides the expenditure on food. The households with income below these levels are classified as "low level poor". I n the third method, poverty lines are obtained by"food rate" approach andthe poor households are classified as "high level The results obtained through 1994 household income and consumption survey data show that 11percent o f the households in Turkey are extremely poor, the following 20 percent are "low level poor" and 12 percent are "high level poor". People who live in rural areas face the problem o f poverty more severely than those who live in urbanized areas. Finally, looking at the results o f the analysis on geographical base, confirming the results o f the previously held studies, she concludes that East and Southeast Regions have to fight poverty much more than the remaining regions (see Table 3). 34  cost o f 1 minimum food 11 7 14 mending: I I Basic needs 1 1I I 31 28 32 Foodrate Source: Erdogan (1996) In her (1998) study, Erdogan employs two methods for calculating the poverty line and establishing the poverty profile o f the whole country: "cost o f minimum food spending" method and ''cost o f basic needs" method. According to the first method, 5.66 percent o f the households and 8.37 percent o f the individuals are poor. According to the second method, 19.31 percent o f the households and 24.30 percent o f the individuals are poor. When regional poverty rates are considered, it i s observed that people livinginrural areas have a living standard much lower than those living in urbanized areas. As the education level increases, individuals face much less poverty. Also, among those who are not in the labor force; unemployed, old and ill people have a higher poverty rate compared to others in the same group. Finally, those who have agricultural income have lower living standardsthan people working inother sectors. Senses (1999) investigates the role o f The Social Assistance and Solidarity Encouragement Fund (SSF) in poverty reduction. SSF was founded in 1986 as an institution and a measure to alleviate poverty. Senses analyses the reasons and the timing o f t he emergence o f the Fund, its monetary s ources, i t s areas o f effectiveness and the problems faced while implementing the aims o f the Fund. It i s pointed out that the Fund has a formal appearance, an unstable source structure, and that it does not rely on information related to the level and profile o f poverty and has often been subject to political interferences. Therefore, Senses concludes that, although the Fund has some positive aspects, its contributions to poverty fight will only be limited and therefore it i s necessary to have rapid technological and industrial growth. InDagdemir (1999) study, the effects of the macroeconomic contraction on the problem o f poverty is analyzed for the period o f 1987-1994. A numerical change in poverty over years, poverty gap index and an index o f income inequality across the poor are computed in order to measure the change in the intensity o f poverty. The problem o f poverty ins everal regions o f T urkey is examined by using different measuresby also taking the structural change o f poverty into account. In this study, Minimum Food Cost (MFC) and Basic Needs Cost (BNC) methods are usedto calculate the poverty lines. 35  It is observed that, in Turkey, poverty in urbanized regions increased over the 1987-1994 period. In rural regions, besides increasing poverty, it i s also observed that poverty problem becomes deeper and the income inequality across the poor people increases. The results are presented inTable 7 below. Source: Dagdemir (1999) RuralPoverty Akder (1999) shows that productivity differences across rural areas are in tum a reflection o f the differences in factors o fproduction such as labor, capital and land usage. &der classifies provinces as a) high mechanizatiodlow labor intensity provinces, engaged in basic intensive agriculture; b) low mechanizatiodhigh labor intensity provinces, characterized by a scarcity o f arable land and the lowest agricultural productivity; c) high mechanizatiodlow labor intensity provinces, which tend to specialize in oil seeds and some tuber crops; d) highmechanizationhigh labor intensity provinces, which are the most productive and specialize in the vegetables, fruits, tubers and industrial crops. Akder states that poor provinces are disproportionately concentrated inthe low mechanizatiodlow labor intensitygroup, (with some poor districts found also inthe low mechanizatiodlow labor intensity category) (see World Bank 2000, p.22 Table 4) - Inher study, Pamuk (2000) uses the rural areas data of 1994 Household Income Distribution Survey of the State Statistical Institute. Relative poverty definition o f OECD i s adopted to construct the poverty lines. The relative poverty line i s set at one-half (50 percent) o f the annual median income per equivalent household member (according to the OECD equivalence scale). People with disposable income lower or equal to the poverty threshold are called relatively poor. Using the OECD methodology, it i s computed that 14.8 percent o f the rural population and 14.15 percent o f the rural households are called relatively poor; that is, their total annual incomes are below the relative poverty line. It is also detected, confirming the findings o f the previous studies, that poverty differs a lot across regions. Poverty risk i s at the highest level in Southeast Anatolia with 30.46 percent. The population o f this region constitutes the 9.94 percent o f the rural population and the contribution o f this region t o poverty is 2 0.44 percent. The 1owest poverty risk i s in Marmara with 6.50 percent and in Aegean with 7.67 percent. The risk 36  o f the individuals living inthese regions constitutes approximately the halfo f the average poverty risk (see Table 8). Measuresof Poverty (?A) Structure of Poverty (%) ~ Regions Head-Count Poverty GapIndex Total Population PoorPopulation Index Aegean 7.67 23.36 15.10 7.83 Mediterranean 17.42 27.77 12.77 15.03 Central Anatolia 15.79 26.73 16.28 17.36 Black Sea 16.44 29.44 20.01 22.22 East Anatolia 12.97 26.17 13.15 11.51 Southeast 30.46 26.93 9.94 20.44 Anatolia Marmara 6.5 21.76 12.75 5.60 Total 14.80 26.92 100.00 100.00 It is also detected that educationhas the strongest correlation to poverty risk; that is, the education level o f the household head plays a key role in determining whether the household i s poor or not (see Table 9). Table 9: Povertv related to the education level of the household head Education level of the Measuresof Poverty ("A) Structure of Poverty ("!) householdhead Head-Count Poverty Gap Total Population Poor Population Index Index Illiterate 26.25 30.23 18.65 33.08 Literate without a 18.14 28.16 11.86 14.53 diploma Primary school 12.92 24.60 57.29 50.01 Junior school 4.40 19.85 5.44 1.62 High school 2.3 1 27.37 4.91 0.77 University 0.00 0.00 1.85 0.00 Total 14.80 26.92 100.00 100.00 Another finding o f t he st udy is that poverty risk differs among the households depending on the sector in which they are employed. The findings show that those who work inagriculture and construction are subject to more risk o fpoverty (see Table 10). 37  Branches Transtlortation I 7.79 I 20.41 I 3.90 I 2.05 I Financial institutions 0.90 9.38 0.62 0.04 Society services 4.3 1 25.48 8.82 2.57 Out of work 20.77 30.24 7.33 10.28 TOTAL 14.80 26.92 100.00 100.00 Source: Pamuk(2000) Economic Reforms, Living Standards and Social Welfare Study o f World Bank (2000) Report aims at providing the Turkish policymakers, the Bank audience and other interested parties with the information necessary to find the solutions for social dilemmas and policy questions such as: Can Turkey continue to progress in the fight against poverty? I s it possible to accelerate the improvement? What needs to be done in order for the GDP growth to show itself in terms o f increasing employment and wages? I s it possible to obtain a future growth path if 40 percent o f the employment i s in the agricultural sector? Can the huge disparities between regions, in terms o f poverty, be eliminated? Because o f the fact that the main concern o f the Report i s on the impact o f economic reforms on living standards, poverty and welfare, it also touches major labor market issues, income distribution, inequality aspects and the impact o f government expenditures. Interms of labor market issues, it i s concluded that Turkey faces a serious challenge in generating employment. It i s pointed out that, although Turkey has been successful in sustaining positive GDP growth rates recently, it has been less successful at generating employment, and that meetingthe employment challenge requires faster GDP growth. Another detection o f the Report i s that income inequality between regions in Turkey is high, the Gini coefficient for income being 0.45 and for consumption expenditures 0.41. A significant share o f the total inequality in Turkey i s claimed to be explainedby the differences inthe endowments, geography and the opportunities faced in the labor market. On the other hand, it is observed that when looked at the households rather than the regions, income inequality has remained roughly unchanged between 1987 and 1994. The Report also provides a wide elaboration on the poverty issue in Turkey. It i s stated that absolute poverty inTurkey, based on a country-specific minimumfood basket, 38  i s low. However, economic vulnerability is found to be widespread (see Table 11). Inthe absolute sense, a household i s considered to be poor if it consumes less than the cost o f absolute minimum required to provide nutrition and shelter for its members. But, some households may not be absolutely poor, yet may be vulnerable to poverty and an economic shock like loss of employment or unexpected disability may push them into absolute deprivation. Methodology Poverty Line Poverty Incidence Absolute poverty Local cost o f minimum food 7.3 basket Economic Vulnerability Local cost o f basic needs basket 36.3 (including non-food) Relative Income Poverty One-half o f national median 15.7 income The Report also claims that poverty in Turkey i s linked mainly to the education level o f the household head. It i s computed that, one half o f all households headed by an illiterate person are economically vulnerable and nearly 15 percent are poor in an absolute sense (see Table 12). Education Poverty Indicators Structure and decomposition ("A) o f Incidence o f Incidence o f Average Population Vulnerable Poor household economic poverty shortfall o f population population head vulnerabilit the poor Y Illiterate 0.526 0.149 0.329 13.6 19.7 27.8 Literate 0.453 0.105 0.305 7.4 9.3 10.7 without a -diploma Primary 0.382 0.072 0.301 55.8 58.8 55.0 Secondary 0.23 1 0.025 0.261 17.9 11.4 6.2 Higher 0.056 0.003 0.159 5.3 0.8 0.2 Total 0.363 0.073 0.301 100 100 100 Note: average shortfaliis the gap between the average consumption ojthe poor and thepoverty line (0.3 means that an averagepoor person has consumption 30 percent below thepoverty line) Labor market status o f the household head i s claimed to be another major determinant o fpoverty. Ifthe head i s employed inseasonal or casualjobs, the households are subject t o a higher risk o f poverty. Moreover, t here are big differences inpoverty incidence between the regions o f the country; East and South-East Anatolian have a vulnerability risk which i s 50% above the national average and the differences in the absolute poverty rates across regions are even wider. Contrary to the findings o f previous studies, the Report finds s mall differences inv ulnerability and poverty betweenurban 39  and rural areas because o f the fact that different poverty lines are calculated for urbanand rural areas, prices beingmuch lower inrural areas. Overall, it i s concluded that inorder to improve the living standards and to reduce the poverty problem, government expenditures should be reallocated. In doing this, economically vulnerable people should be targeted, increasing growth and price stability should be reached, biases against employment creation outside o f agriculture should be removed and investments ineducation should be increased. 40  References Akder, H.(1999) Dimensions of RuralPoverty inTurkey, World Bank. Dagdemir, 0.(1992), Turkiye Ekonomisinde Yapisal Degigimve Gelir Dagilimi, UnpublishedPh. DThesis, Anadolu Universitesi, Eskisehir. Dagdemir, 0.(1999) Turkiye Ekonomisinde Yoksulluk Sorunuve Yoksulluk Analizi 1987-1994, H.U.IIBFDergisi, Cilt 7, Sayi 1. Dansuk,E. 1997, Turkiye'de Yoksullugun Olqulmesi ve Sosyo-ekonomik Yapilarla Iligkisi, Uzmanlik Tezi, DPT, Ankara. Devlet Planlama Tegkilati. (2000) UzunVadeli Strateji ve Sekizinci Beg Yillik Kalkinma Plani 2001-2005, Sekizinci Bolum, Ankara. Dumanli, R. (1996) Yoksulluk ve Turkiye'deki Boyutlari, DPT UzmanlikTezi, Ankara. Erdogan,G.(1996) Turkiye'de Bolge Ayriminda Yoksulluk SiniriUzerine Bir Caligma, DIEUzmanlik Tezi, Ankara. Erdogan, G. (1997), Poverty Definitions andPoverty in:Turkey, Ankara, SIS. Erdogan, G.(1998), Poverty inTurkey: Level and Profile (inTurkish), Ankara, SIS. Erdogan,G.(2000) "Tiirkiye'de ve Dunyada Yoksulluk Olqumleri Uzerine Degerlendirmeler" inDIE, IggucuPiyasalari Analizleri 1999(l), Devlet Ankara: Istatistik EnstitusuMatbaasi. Filiztekin, A. (1999)," Convergence Across Turkish Provinces and Sectoral Dynamics", World Bank He, D.(1999), "Turkey- Inflation and the Distributionof Income, World Bank Pamuk, M.(2000) "Kirsal Yerlerde Yoksulluk" inDIE, IggucuPiyasalari Analizleri 1999 (l), DevletIstatistikEnstitusuMatbaasi. Ankara: Senses, F. (1999), "Yoksullukla Mucadele ve Sosyal Yardimlasma ve Dayanigmayi Tegvik Fonu", ODTU GeligmeDergisi, 26(3-4), 427-51. Uygur, S. and Kasnakoglu, Z. (1998), Estimation of Poverty Line: Turkey 1994, Ankara, SIS* World Bank. (2000) Turkey: Economic Reforms, Living Standards and Social Welfare Study, Poverty Reduction andEconomic Management Unit,Europeand Central Asia Region. 41  3. PovertyinTurkey; The Social Dimension (TahireErman) Research on poverty has been accelerating since the 1980s, and more so in the 2000s when economic restructuring at the global scale and 'post-fordist production system' (Jessop, 1994) led to changes in the socio-economic conditions of people, challenging the older social order. In Western literature, the term 'underclass,' which refers to those who are marginal and excluded from the system since they are not economically needed, has been with us for many years (Myrdal, 1963). But recently, research pointing to the increasing economic gap between the rich and the poor in Western metropolises (Towsend, 1993), has triggered research on the 'underclass' (Mingione, 1996), which i s now called the 'new urban underclass' (Musterd, 1994). Today's underclass, under the shrinking welfare state, has become an important problem to address. In the Western context, the increasing poverty in cities, and particularly the increasing gap between the rich and the poor in 'global cities,' such as New York, London and Tokyo (Sassen, 1991), hasbeenobserved. As manufacturing moves out o ftowns inthe 'First World' to 'Third World' societies in the search of the capitalist class for cheap and unorganized labor, as new type of service industries, namely, producer services (such as, international legal and accounting services, management consulting, financial services) come to dominate cities, and as the economic basis of highly industrialized countries changes from goods-producing to services- and information- processing ('deindustrialization') (O'Louglin and Friedrichs, 1996), available jobs do not match the qualifications o fpotential labor, and the middle classes erode (Mingione, 1991). The global city has come to contain two major groups, namely, the well-educated andwell-paid people who occupy importantpositions intransnational multinational companies, and the unskilled andpoorly-paidpeople who cater for the needsandwishes o fthe former group. Inbrief, theeconomic restructuring processatthegloballevelthat hasbeenaffecting manysocieties andpeople, has created arecent attention to increasing poverty, mostly inthe urbancontext. A new concept, namely, 'the new urbanpoor' has come to beusedto refer to the 'disadvantaged' (the UnitedNations), the 'non-labor' (Parkin, 2000), andthe 'underclass' (Myrdal, 1963) who lack any opportunity for social mobility and hence who are imprisoned ina 'caste system.' Thus, thenewpovertyis the advanced stageofpovertythat is severe and persistent. The urban poor are mainly women, Blacks and newcomers (Parkin, 2000). Thus, race, ethnicity and gender are the three distinguishingfeatures o fthe newurbanpoor. Turkey, where economic restructuringhas beenthe aim of successive governments since the 1980s which have favored liberal policies to this end, is no exception in experiencing increased poverty and income inequality. While income inequality decreased between 1973 and 1987, it increased in the period o f 1987-1994 (Dansuk, 1997). Poverty intensified between 1987 and 1994. Average annual poverty rate increased by 4.00 % in this period(Dumanli, 1996). Particularly following the November2000 andFebruary2001 crises, poverty in Turkey has become acute. The data support this claim. The amount of money needed by a household o f four persons to survive was 567,095,000 liras in 42  September, and it reached 870,862,000 liras in September 2001 (Kamu-Sen, 2001). Those who face the risk o f povertyinterms o f food and basic needs have reached 24 % (25 % in rural areas and 21 % in urban areas) (SPO, 2001b). And those who are poor despite their employment have reached about 50 % (SPO, 2001b). Inthe last four years, 25 % o f the population applied for and...received financial assistance from the State's hnd for the poor, namely, the Fak-Fuk-Fon""' (Sallan-Giil, 2001). Not only poverty intensified, but also the inequality in the distribution o f income increased. The gini coefficient was 0.58 in 1994, up from 0.43 in 1984 and from 0.38 in 1978 inthe case o f Istanbul(SIS, 1994). In 1994, the wealthiest 17,800 households forming 1% of Istanbul'spopulation received 29 % ofthe total income, and their income was 1437 times as much as o fthe poorest households (Sonmez, 1998). The wealthiest andthe poorest are spatially differentiated in Istanbul. The results o f an analysis done by using the 1990 National Population Census (Guvenq and Igik, 1996) suggest that well-to-do sections o f each category are found to cluster inthree specific enclaves at the sea side, one ineach side o f the metropolitan area, while the poorest are scattered in and around transition zones or aroundvertically disintegrated production complexes (p.59). Furthermore, the results indicate that the spatial variation inhome ownership rates is directly related to the geography o f metropolitan employment, that is, on Istanbul's east coast (Anatolian side) where fordist production (regular payment, steady employment, insurance) predominates, home ownership rates are high, whereas on its west coast (European s ide) where flexible production (responsive t o fluctuations inthe market, and hence entails temporary employment without social security benefits) i s widespread, there i s highconcentration oftenants. The same economic polarization is observed inother metropolitan cities in Turkey. For example, in Adana the wealthiest 20 % of the population received 64.4 % of the total income, whereas the poorest 20 % o fthe populationreceived only 4 YO.This meant that the wealthiest group received 1391 times as much as the poorest group (Sonmez, 1998). Erzurum, Antalya and Ankara follow Istanbul and Adana intheir extreme inequality inthe distribution o f income. Izmir, with its wealthiest group receiving 99 times o f the poorest group, emerges as a city with less inequality between the wealthy and the poor (See tables on pages 26, 27, and 30-48 in Sonmez, 1998 for the unequal income distribution in metropolitancities). Other data (Tiiziin, 2001) further demonstrate that the poorest 5 YOof the urban population receives 246 dollars annually, whereas the wealthiest 5 YOo f the urban populationreceives 10,376 dollars annually. There are various reasons behind this economic polarization in the Turkish urban context. Under the umbrella term 'economic restructuring' and 'neo-liberal policies,' the state's role in economy and politics i s changing. Before the 1980s, the State acted as the referee inthe socio-economic system, controlling redistributionmechanisms, and keeping a strong position bothdue to the strong state tradition the Turkish Republic inherited from the Ottoman Empire and to the characteristics specific to import-substitute industrialization (the 43  state protecting the national private sector through tariffs and quotas) (Pinarcioglu and Ipk, 2001). However, the State has started to take on less active roles since the 1980s. The economic crisis inthe mid-l970s, which affected 'the West and the Rest' alike, and Turkey i s no exception, challenged the society's major tenets on which the social consensus was built. For example, there was the consensus that the emergingbourgeoisie in the Turkish Republic would take advantage o f the capital accumulation in the import-substitute industrializationunder the protection o f the state, keeping away from the potential rents in the urban1andmarket. Inthis w ay, i t w as possible t o distributeurbanrents to a larger population of middle and lower income groups through small-scale developers, addressing middleclasses andthrough squatter development, addressing lower classes, mainly rural-to- urbanmigrants(Pinarcioglu andIyk, 2001). However, this consensus was challenged by the economic crisis o f the mid-l970s, andas a result, radical changes instate and society relations took place, the state giving up its role as the referee o f society (Pinarcioglu and Igik, 2001). In 1980, by the January 24 Decisions, a new phase inTurkisheconomy opened up, which aimed at the liberalizationo f economy, and which adopted export-oriented policies instead o f import-substitute industrialization (Demir, 1993). The state, which is now presented inpublic discourse as a burden on the economy because of its too many employees, and as a corrupted institutionin which clientalist relations dominate, i s shrinking in terms o f both its size and fimctions in politics and economy. It affects lower classes in a double way: those who are employed in government jobs face the danger o f losing their jobs and experience decrease inreal wages (Boratav, 1990 and C elasun, 1989 inDemir, 1993), and suffer from the deterioration o f public services (especially ineducation, healthand social security). While upper classes are able to take advantage o f the high-tech, well-serviced and very expensive services (private schools, private hospitals, private insurance companies), the lower classeshave to be content with the services provided by the state, albeit how inadequate and sometimes inaccessible they might be. Furthermore, as the number o fjobs in the formal sector (both private and public sector) decreases due to the type of economic policies adopted, the informal sector expands (Demir, 1993), andthis means insecure andlow-payingjobs for the poor. With the efforts for global integrationofsociety, anincreasing numbero fyoung and educated people have begun to be employed in the producer services o f transnational/ multinational corporations that opened branches inTurkishmetropolises, mostly inIstanbul. For example, the number o f producer service firms established through the Foreign Investment Directorate o f Treasury and ForeignTrade (FDI) was only six before 1980, and only 10 between 1981 and 1984, while it reached 262 inthe post-1984, the two-year period 1989-1990 being the peak (Tokatli and Erkip, 1998). They have their distinct way o f life, and tend to exclude the poor from their lives and environment, for example, by building their 'gated communities' away from the city center, protectedbyhigh-techsecurity systems and private security personnel (Oncu, 1997; IQikand Pinarcioglu, 2001). Inthis way, the recent tendency o f the rich to separatethemselves from the poor physically through creating their own homogeneous (both culturally and economically) communities, which was well observed and described in the American context (e.g. Davis, 1992 about L.A.), has been replicating itself in the Turkish context, yet with some differences and variations. Here it should be acknowledged that this 'new urbanrich class,' which emerged as the result o f the 44  integration of Turkish society into the global capitalist economy, i s relatively small in numberandis quitevulnerable inthe face ofthe 'unexpected' movementso fglobal (foreign) capital, as the February2001 economic crisis has shown. Another important characteristics o fTurkish society, which enabled the reproduction o f the system, i s the significant role family plays in the lives of people. Turkish state, despite its intervention in economy (and politics) has never been a 'welfare state' as understood in the West. Even when compared to 'developing countries,' the amount o f money spent by the state on social services (mainly health, education and social security) remains quite low. For example, the ratio of social expenditures to the overall state expenditurein 1998was 63.6 inArgentina, 48.1 inMexico, 71.3 inChile, 26.2 inIndonesia, 26.5 in Philippines, 2 7.8 inKorea and 42.7 in Malaysia, whereas i t was 2 5.7 inTurkey (World Bank, 2001). And only 47.6 % o f the employedpopulation has membership in a social security fund (TUSIAD, 1997). Twenty percent of the population remains outside of any social security programme. Instead of the welfare state model, a welfare model based on family characterizes the Turkish case. However, this model is being challenged drastically by recent economic, social and demographic changes. The consecutive economic crises in Turkey are making it necessary to tighten the control over the limited financial resources, closing the door on 'permissive' policies and practices, for example, conniving at land occupation at city peripheries (BuBa, 2001). As a result, squatter (gecekondu)x'vfamilies, who have been maintaining themselves in the city by using their own resources andnetworks without any formal/ direct support by the state, can no longer do so. Changes inthe demographic structure are another challenge to the traditional family welfare model. Turkeyhas a 'young population': In1935, 50 % of the populationwas below the age o f 21.21, while in 1990 it was 22.21 (SIS, 1996). And the fertility rates are dropping: In1975, the number o f children bom alive permother was 4.06, while it was 3.70 in1990(SIS, 1996), whichpointsto the potentialofwomen's increasingparticipation inthe labor market. This means that more people are seeking employment in the market. Additionally, the number of people above the age o f 65 is increasing: In 1985, it was 2,125,908, while it was 2,417,363 in 1990, which challenges the prevailing practice o f elderly care giving within the family. All this makes it difficult to continue with the traditional welfare model based on family support. But under the present ideologies and realities, there may be no other alternative to this model, and this i s going to magnify the costs o f economic crises on people inTurkishsociety (Bugra, 2001). After having contextualized poverty (and wealth) inthe recent changes experienced in Turkish society as a result of economic restructuring policies and processes, let us consider the various groups that are prone to poverty. 45  UrbanPoverty (0 Gecekondu(Squatter)Peoplein the Cities: TheMass Urban Poor As mentionedearlier, from the early stages o f gecekondu formation inthe 1950sup to the 1980s, the urbanrent inperipheral landwas distributed among the urbanpoor, namely those who migrated from rural areas usually in search for economic opportunities. They were tolerated by governments when they built their houses on the landat the peripheries o f bigcities, largelyowned by the state. This tolerant attitude o f governments canberegarded as clientalism, that is, when the government lacks direct material resources to distribute in return for loyalty, it tends to offer 'non-material' rewards, namely, the "non-exercise o f legal controls or their selective relaxation" (Oncu, 1988; p.45). Today, a largenumber o f families own their gecekondus, and a small but recently increasing number o f families rent them. For example, ina research conducted in Ankara (METU, 2000), 87.3 % o f the respondents owned their houses/ apartments, while 23.3 rented them, and 16 % lived in the houses owned by their relatives without paying rent. InIstanbul'sgecekondu areas surrounding the city, high concentrations o f owner-occupiers were observed in 1990 (Giivenq and Iyk, 1996). In the earlier times of gecekondu formation, there was solidarity and cooperation among gecekondu residents regardless o f their sectarian, ethnic and regional differences since they needed each other in establishing their neighborhoods, negotiating with the government for services and infrastructure. However, in the 1980s, we observe hostility among gecekondu groups (Guneg-Ayata, 1990-91), and sharp competition among the urban poor for the gecekondu rent, which increased significantly as the result o f the laws passedin the mid-1980s regarding squatter housing. As claimed by some scholars (e.g. Senyapill, 1998), the government o f the time (the Ozal government), in order to compensate for the loses lower classes were experiencing as the result o f the neo-liberal policies practiced by the government, attempted to 'bribe' them through permittingthe construction ofup to four- story houses on the gecekondu land. Inthis way, it was aimed both to integrate gecekondu settlements (informal housing) into the formal housing market, and to take the support of lower classes in the implication o f liberal policies, or at least to prevent their uprising. Gecekondu owners have always been aware that their houses are their life-long security, and poor people until very recently carried the hope that one day they would build their own gecekondus. This prevented the urban poor from falling into pessimism and fatalism experienced by the urbanpoor inthe West ('culture o fpoverty' and'the underclass'). And by these laws, they firther came to view their gecekondus as an important means o f economic mobility and a source o fmuch profit. These changes in the laws promoted the commercialization o f gecekondu housing. The increasing rent on gecekondu land coupled with the decreasing role o f the state in economy intensifiedcompetition and increased the number o f actors involved init (Keyder, 2000). Not only the lower classes but also the upper andmiddle classes began to compete for the peripheral urban land. The cooperatives for the middle classes and the private sector oriented to the upper classes to build luxurious villa-type communities, wanted that land, as well as Municipalities to produce large-scale residential projects. And inthe meantime, the 46  traditional small-scale contractors were rapidly replacing single-story gecekondus with multi-story apartment buildings in retum for several apartments to the gecekondu owner. This paved the way to significant economic gains for gecekondu owners: they were once 'landless peasants in the city,' then became land and/or house owners, and finally they owned apartments, and insome cases, several apartments (Senyapili, 1998; Erman, 2001b). Thus, urban land has been a major means o f survival o f the mass urban poor.xv And throughout this process, gecekondu residents have been actively searching for any opportunity that would help them settle in the city and improve their conditions and positions, and have taken advantage o fvarious mechanisms andnetworks, such as clientalist relations withpoliticalparties andcommunity networks. The intensified competition for urban rent since the 1 9 8 0 ~and ~ the increasing passivity o f the state in the regulation o f economy, along with its decreasing role in the provision o f social services which have been traditionally provided by the state, have led gecekondu people to seek protectioninother relations, and through these relations, to obtain strategic positions intheir access to urbanrent (Senyapili, 1998; Pinarcioglu and Igik,2001). As a result, the already present divisions along ethnic and sectarian lines, which have been politicized in the identity politics o f the 1980s (Ayata, 1997), have begun to be used extensively as mechanisms o f unequal distribution o f urban rent. Thus, radical Islam, Alevism, Kurdish origin, common regional origin (hemJehriZik), all are acting today as collective identities on the basis o f which local networks develop and compete with one another aggressively for the rent ingecekondu land(Erder, 1997). Inthis competition, some gain and some lose. An empirical study carried out in a gecekondu district in Istanbul (Sultanbeyli, known as an Islamist district) demonstrates who winners and losers might be. Intheir research during which they conducted 611interviews, Igik and Pinarcioglu (2001) found that the better-off gecekondu households (winners, 13 %) were those who hadmoved into the settlement during its early stage o f development (20 years ago or earlier); the majority o f the 'heads o f the household' were employers (mainly in construction and real estate, and some in manufacturing), and those who were employees mostly worked in the Municipality (governed by the Islamist Party-- the Virtue Party; it has become the Felicity Party recently) or in the associations established by Islamist groups; they were all home owners, some owned other houses/ apartments inthe neighborhood, and some even owned apartments in other neighborhoods in Istanbul; and all had television sets, refrigerators, fully-automatic washing machines and telephones, and 79 % owned cars, 35 % owned dish washers and 35 % owned mobile phones.xv' They were mostly migrants from Trabzon and Giimughane (two major cities in the Black Sea) or those who moved to Sultanbeyli from other districts in Istanbul. On the other hand, inthe poorest gecekondu households (losers, 24 %), men mostly worked in daily construction jobs which they found in the local construction workers' market ('amelepazan') or as street vendors and sellers o f h i t s and vegetables in the local market. They were almost all tenants (90 %, and 6 % lived inthe houses o f their relatives without paying rent) and only 4 % owned their houses. While the majority owned television sets (86 %) and refrigerators (90 %), and some owned washing machines (57 %) and telephones (53 %), very few owned dish washers (4 %), mobile phones (8 %) and cars (8 %). The poorest 15 % o f the residents did not own telephones, washing machines, dish washers or cars. They w ere recent comers to the neighborhood (moved five years ago or later), and many were migrants o f Kurdish origin from the 47  Southeast, who moved directly from their villages mainly in Van, Elazig, Siirt, Tunceli, Hakkari and Diyarbakir to this neighborhood. Pinarcioglu and Igik (2001) interpret their data as 'poverty inturns' (n8betleJeyoksullull). It refers to the process inwhich established squatter residents are able to improve their economic conditions by exploiting the newcomers into the neighborhood. Through their involvement in land occupation and gecekondu construction inthe early stage o f the formation o f the gecekondu neighborhood, they find the opportunity to own land (although this land ownership i s illegal by definition, in practice it is usually recognized by the authorities as a result of intricate negotiation processes based on clientalism) and to build houses on it, and they make gains on the newcomers inthe later years, selling the landthey had plotted, renting their houses, andthe like. Inthis way, they handtheir poverty over to them. However, this optimistic picture o f urbanpoverty, which implies temporariness and the possibility o f getting rid o f it, is rapidly disappearing in the face o f recent economic crises,xvii which have led, among other things, the private sector's aggressive attempts t o appropriate urbanrent. Furthermore, the networks based on common origin (hemphrilik),which acted as an important mechanism o f support and social mobility among rural migrants, have become selective and exclusionary (Erder, 1995, 1996). As winners and losers become crystallized inthe years spent in the city, andruralmigrantscompete for diminishing resourcesand opportunities, migrant networks tend to include those who have something to offer and to exclude those who will be a burden on the network. While the former group includes families inwhich there are adult men, the more the better (hence reproducing the dominant position o f men and adults in the family), the latter group includes the elderly (especially elderly widows), the disabled, those families in which there is chronic unemployment, alcoholism and drug abuse, andmore importantly, those families fkom the Southeast which are the latest comers to the city andwhich migrated as the result o f terrorism intheir region ('forced migration') (Erder, 1995, 1996). They are disadvantaged in the city compared to earlier migrant groups for a number o f reasons (Erder, 1998a; SPO, 2001a). First, due to their forced nature o f migration, they come to the city unprepared without having established their networks and support systems. This is not the case with voluntary migration, which i s usually chain migration. Except for the initial period o fmigrationinthe late 1940s and early 1 9 5 0 ~people have been migrating to cities by receiving help and ~ information from their relatives and fellow-villagers already settled in the city. Secondly, their relations with the village terminate upon their migration, which is not again the case with voluntary migrants who usually continue their relations with their villages, bringing from the village various food stuffs (flour, lentil, cracked wheat, tomato paste, yogurt), timber, and the like, which contribute to their economic survival inthe city. Thirdly, they may be discriminated against due to the stigma placed on the people from the Southeast as potential terrorists. A nd1ast but not 1east, they migrate as crowded families with many children, which may create further problems in the survival in the city, such as finding housing. In a research conducted with 28 women and 35 men who migrated from their village inMardin to Istanbul upon their abandoning their village when they had no option buttojointhe korucu (thecivilian armedgroups formed bythe Stateto fight against terrorist groups), it was observed that they lived in one-room shanties covered with oilcloth 48  (linoleum) on the periphery o f Istanbul, which the author calls the "tent village'' (Kayacan, 1998). In those nine shanties lived 27 children, and 14 o f them attended school. The families tended to keep their daughters at home, and this was because o f both their patriarchal tradition andtheir very limitedincomes that requiredthe families to select among their childrenthose who would be sent to school. Furthermore, the families expressed their concern for their children in school whose education lagged behind the usual educational period, for example, their sons o f 12 years o f age attending the second grade ando f 10years o f age attending the first grade. The children attended a primary school located at the 15 minutes o fwalking distance from the 'tent village,' andthey walked on a dirt pathto school, which got very muddy in the winter. The women also suffered very much fi-om the consequences o f their 'forced migration.' They had to do laundry in the open by using the water carried from the nearby forest, which meant cold andmudinthe winter; and they fed their families with the bread they made inthe tandzr (earth oven). None o fthe households had refrigerators or washing machines, yet each household had a television set and a small cassette player. Thirteen men and three women had paid jobs. Except for two men, they were employed temporarily and lacked social security. As a conclusion, we can say that the socio-economic system, which, with its clientalist politics, interventionist state, 'illegal' housing, and 'informal' job market, was able to provide channels to the urban poor to escape poverty until recently, and hence creating optimism in them and enabling them to developing their capabilities to struggle against poverty, cannot maintain itself any more. This means a new type o f poverty in urban Turkey, which is a 'no-way-out' situation. An example o f the new urbanpoor in the Turkish context is the 'scavengers' inthe city. In an empirical research, Ozgen (2001) investigated 'garbage' as a commodity and 'profit-making on garbage' as a hierarchical process inwhich various actors were involved, rangingfrom people collectinggarbage inthe streets and at garbagecollection sites to small, medium, and large-scale garbage dealers (hurdaci) and national and/or international buyers. Inthe research, itwas found out that, the 'garbagepeople' at the lower levels ofthe 'garbage hierarchy,' namely, garbagepickers, regardless o f how muchmoney they made, were bound to remain unintegrated into the society. For example, in Denizli, a rapidlygrowing city which had an organized garbage collection and re-cycling process, garbage pickers were mostly recent migrantso fKurdishorigin fi-omSoutheastern andEastem Anatolia who lived insquatterhousesontheperipheries ofthe city wheretheyhadhighlyinadequate education and health facilities. They regarded picking garbage as their permanentjobs ('professions') on which they would live also inthe hture (they said they made muchmoney in collecting garbage which they could never make in any other job available to them), and they took their young children out o f school to work in 'their family business' (many families sorted out garbage intheir homes). The author ends her article by stating that 'the new poverty in global times' cannot be measuredby the amount o f money people make: regardless o f how much they make, when their access to power i s closed andwhen they are renderedinvisible inthe city due to the (lack of) status of their jobs, they are excluded fi-om the mainstream society, andthis exclusion tends to reproduce itselfinthe next generations. 49  There i s a studyworth mentioning inthis context. Ina survey carried out inAnkara in 1992 (Morgol andGitmez, 1995), which aimed to identifythe different types ofthepoor, poverty was measured in terms o f both structural (income) and cultural/ psychological (individual locus o f control) dimensions o f living conditions. Among the variables used, income, family assets, neighborhood, education and housing conditions were used as indicators o f objective livingconditions, and locus o f control, life satisfaction andhappiness were used to measure subjective well being. The number o f years spent in Ankara was included in the analysis as the indicator o f experience in urban life. Interviews with 550 persons 1ivingin 14 different neighborhoods o f Ankara w ere c onducted, 438 out o f 5 50 living in lower income neighborhoods. The authors identified three major groups interms o f their objective poverty, namely, doers (those with highest level o f economic means), losers (those with lowest level o f economic means), and accommodators (those inbetween). Interms of subjective poverty (that is, how people evaluate their economic conditions in comparison to other people, including relatives and neighbors, and to their past, and how they perceive their future), doers had the highest level o f satisfaction with their lives, although their economic conditions lacked significantly behind the non-poor, and they felt themselves in charge o f their lives more than the others. They assessed their own living conditions as considerably better than five years ago and their living standards higher than their close relatives and neighbors. On the other hand, accommodators evaluated their economic conditions as the same compared to the past. And losers regarded themselves as worse-off when compared to the others, and they exhibited the sense o f loss o f control over their lives, and had the lowest scores on the variables life satisfaction and happiness. Interestingly, both doers and losers were relatively new inthe city, whereas accommodators had longer duration o furbanexperience. The authors explained their findings inthe context o f Turkey's economic development and social change. They stated that, while "the majority of Turkey's urban poor had been accommodators prior to the 1980s," as a result o f the structural adjustment policies in the early 1980s, which ''opened up a new phase o f economic development in the country" (p. 419), doers and losers have emerged as new categories o fthe urbanpoor: The doers and losers can be considered the products o f the post-1980 economic conditions and the accompanying cultural climate in the country. The effects o f lifting economic subsidies and the incremental moves toward market-oriented policies seem to be double edged, creating both upward and downward mobility and the associated psychological attitudes. Many slipped down on the hierarchy, some found ways to accommodate themselves at lower levels. Others lost control over their lives and became losers. On the other hand, some used the economic opportunities that arose from the new economic policies to lift themselves up somewhat on the hierarchy, or at least gained hopes that they could move upward. These are the doers (pp. 419-420). As policy recommendations, they mentioned the need "to establish safety nets for losers to prevent them from slipping further down" (p.420), and for accommodators, measures to induce behavioral changes in them (namely, to motivate them for economic mobility), such as education, should be used. 50  This study contributes to our knowledge on the urban poor by pointing out to the possibility o f economic improvement for some as a result o f economic restructuring. Yet, it fails to inform us about who this group o f doers are interms o ftheir economic activities, job status, family composition, ethnic background, and the like, as well as about their proportion in society. Furthermore, it fails to recognize the social mobility experiences o f accommodators throughout their lives in the city until they have reached their 'stable' economic conditions. Also, it is necessary to recognize the fact that following the recent financial crises, there have emerged threats to the 'stable' positions o f 'accommodators,' and the possibility o ftheir downwardmobility has increased. In another research (Sallan-Giil, 2001) conducted with 36 persons who received assistance from the 'Fak-Fuk-Fon' Fund, they were categorized into three groups, namely, those who were the victims o f the recent economic crises (temporary poverty), those who had been either unemployedor had inadequate incomes for some time [they lacked skills or education; majority worked in the informal sector without job security as porters, construction workers, peddlers, painters, scrap dealers, and the like (2/3 o f respondents lacked social security); and were tenants], and those (mostly elderly andwidows) who lived merely on assistancethey received from the Fundand help from their neighbors (some lived in deserted houses). Another reason which made especially women to apply to the Fund was their disabled children. R espondents1ived inuhealthy conditions; they spent their money only on food; they remained mostly insidetheir neighborhood to save transportation costs and shopped inlocal markets on credits; they had furniture and clothes given to them byother people. Despitethe hardshipthey lived in,they were not pessimistic. The majority defined the cause o f their poverty as lack o fjobs (1S), and only four persons had fatalistic views. Especially women emphasized the significance of social security in maintaining a decent life. Seventy-five percent o f respondents (Le., those receiving financial assistance from the State) wanted to work (others were old or sick). Majority said they thanked God for theirpresent situation becausethey knew some other people livinginworse conditions. (ii) Residentsof Inner CityAreas: TheNew Urban Poor and the Underclass Inadditionto urbanpoormasseswho liveinsquattersettlements andwho havebeen able to cope with poverty and even to improve their economic conditions, discussed inthe section above, there i s an increasing number o f the urbanpoor residingin inner city areas, who have come to represent the 'urban underclass' in the Turkish context. The most important characteristics o f the urbanunderclass inthe Turkish case i s their exclusion from social networks and solidarity ties o f migrants(Erder, 1995, 1996). Ina study conducted in inner city areas o f Izmir, the third biggest metropolitan city o f Turkey, 323 households residing in 12 different neighborhoods were interviewed (Sonmez, 2001). Seventy-six percent o f the household heads had migrated from another region to Izmir, and o f those, 44 % had come from Southeastem region (the majority coming from the province o f Mardin). Inthe study, astrong correlationwas foundbetweentheperiodofmigration andtheregion that contributed to migration: those from the Southeast had migrated after the 1980s, whereas those from the Aegean region, where Izmir is 1ocated, had migrated before the 1980s. Thus, the newcomers were mainly from the Southeast. They were young families with many children. The number o f persons in a household exceeding five was 38 % and 51  the median age o f couples was between 20-24. Among the early comers, many had improved their financial conditions and moved out to apartments in the formal housing market, rentingtheir low-qualityhousesto the newcomers, andthose who were still residing inthe inner city areawere the poorest, the elderly andthe lonely. Inbrief, inthe inner city areas o fIzmir, resided two major groups, namely,the lonely elderlyandyoung families with many children. The majority was tenants. In terms o f their employment, they were concentrated in the informal sector without job security and social security benefits (23 % employed in textile production, 10 % in leather industry, 19 % in service jobs as guards, nurses, waiters and servants, and 10 % worked as street vendors). They mostly worked in work places inthe central city close to their homes. Inthis research (Sonmez, 2001), the social ties andneighborly relations incentral city areas were found to be weak. The fact that the majority o f residents were tenants and displayed highresidential mobility (58 % o f respondents had moved at least twice) acted as a significant factor, preventingthe formation o f strong neighborly relations and solidarity ties, as well as a sense o f belonging to the neighborhood, and hence creating uncaring attitudes towards their neighborhood and emotional detachment from it (75 % o f respondents said they would leave the neighborhood as soon as they found the opportunity). This ledto increased crime rates (the area displayed the third highest crime rates). Residents complained about robbery and children's crimes, as well as underage girls belly dancing for money. Many respondents fixther complained about the lack o fhelp and support from their neighbors, especially inthe case o f care to children, the sick and the elderly. Moreover, the stigma placed on the area as the place o f criminals and the very poor prevented the residents from identifying with their neighborhood and fiom improving it. Inthe sections above, the focus hasbeenonbigcities inthe West which have been receiving migration since the 1950s. However, the cities inthe Southeast have their unique qualities, particularly due to the GAP Project (the Southeastern Anatolia Project, which includes the construction o f the Atatiirk dam), and they deserve special attention. Inthis context, Urfaas a case i s considered inthe following section. InUrfa, the city which is the locus ofthe 'GAPProject' and anexample ofcities in the Southeast where feudal relations which have dominated the area for centuries tend to dissolve, about 70-80 % o f the city population live inpoverty in squatter areas on the city's peripheries (that is, about 450- 500,000 out o f 600- 650,000), and there i s a strict spatial differentiation between the better-off and poor residential districts (the rich moving to suburbs lose to fashionable malls, such as YIMPAS) (Can, 2001). The poor are mostly migrantswho movedfromtheir villages t o the city eitherwhen their feudal 1ords (a@) released them from their ties and loyalty, or whenthey sold their small landwhich proved to be economically insufficient as a result o f the region's agricultural mechanization and integration into the capitalist economy by the GAP Project. There are some who move to other cities, such as Diyarbakir, Adana, Mersin and Antalya, and yet many move to their provincial city (Urfa). They usually continue their subsistence living in the city, growing their own crops, keeping husbandry, making their own bread, and the like. They are different from those villagers who hadto leave their villages because o f terrorism (e.g. those in Sirnak, Siirt, Hakkariand Diyarbakir) and who experience absolute poverty. Yet, their 52  economic conditions are very limited. Many work as seasonal agricultural workers, and some work as construction workers, street peddlers and porters, those jobs which lack reliable income. Those families in which one o f the persons has a permanent job i s very rare, and it i s considered as a prestige symbol (Can, 2001). The increase intheir numbersi s decreasing their bargaining power, causing wage drops. Most o f the houses lack running water and sewage system, and residents tend to use illicit electrical power. Yet, many families own television sets, which are the only high-tech products in their homes (Can, 2001). The migrant families inUrfa are very crowded: many o f them have more than five children. These families use their children's labor as a means o f survival in the city: Children, even those at the age o f seven or eight, usually work, many as shoe-shine boys or insmall workshops as apprentices. Onthe other hand,religious conservatism is preventing women from engagingin employment, except for the case when they work inthe fields as laborers together with the other members oftheir families. Marriedwomen are not allowed to attend courses given by CATOM (Multi-Purpose Social Centers) or by the Governor's Office (e.g. c arpet-weaving c ourses). R eligion and tradition w ork hand inhand to keep women out of schooling, although it seems that poverty i s the real cause behind it (Can, 2001). Religion i s also important inreproducing conformity and fatalism, suppressing any rebellious action. On the other hand, the recent economic crises have paved the way to reactions against the state, manifestedin street protests. Furthermore, the problemo f 'street children' and 'street gangs' i s becoming visible inUrfa although it i s still less common than inDiyarbakir andGaziantep (Can, 2001). InDiyarbalur,which is mentionedas the city ofthe poor, 23.8 YOofthe households had less than $53.3 annually in 1996, 41.2 % had incomes below the minimumwage, and 64 % lacked social security (Goktiirk, 1998). Diyarbakir i s much affected by 'forced migration' inthe Southeast. Ofthe 369 migranthouseholds (2,622 persons), 272 households (2,059 persons) migrated due to forced migration (TMMOB, 1998). Ina survey conducted inDiyarbalurwith689 households (TMMOB, 1998), one-third ofrespondents saidthat they did not receive any help fi-om their relatives. It points to the very difficult economic conditions o f migrants, preventing them to help each other despite the fact that in the Southeastbondsbetween relatives are very strong. InMersin, only 38.7 YOof the household headsworkedinthe formal sector, andamongthe migrants to the city, 43.1 % worked inthe informal sector and 12 % were unemployed (GoktiirkandKaygalak, 2001). Survival Strategies of the Urban Poor When families experience poverty due to a decreaseinthe amount o fmoneycoming into the household, one way to cope with the new situation i s to increase the number o f household members that participate in the labor force (Demir, 1993). Thus, women, childrenand the elderly start working outside (sometimes inside)the home, while mentake on a second, or a third, job. However, since the formal sector lacks enough employment positions to absorb the increase in labor supply, they end up working inthe informal sector for little paywithout ajob contract andjob security. 53  Women, through participating in money-earning activities, producing at home, and saving on consumption, play an important role in the survival strategies o f the urban poor (This issue is expanded inthe 'Women and Poverty' section). The gecekondu gardens the urbanpoor have, andthe h i t trees and vegetablesthey grow inthem, may contribute to the economic survival o f the poor. However, as time spent in the city increases, food production ingardens tends to decrease. For example, while 61.3 YOo f the households had gardens, only 24.5 % grew vegetables intheir gardens (METU, 2000). Yet, this tendency may be reserved in the face o f intensifylng poverty following the economic crises in 2000 and 2001. On the other hand, it should be acknowledged that the apartmentization process going o n inmany gecekondu s ettlements and the t endency t o use gecekondu 1and more intensivelyis eroding this option as a survival strategy for the urbanpoor. Usually poor families cut on their consumption expenses: 44.3 % o f the families cut on food (especially onmeat, milk and milk products) and 20.4 % cut their expenses o n clothing and fumiture, while 35.3 % cut on their expenses in general (METU, 2000). It i s interesting to note the tendency to cut more on food than clothing and fumiture. There may be two explanations. First, they may not be cutting on clothing and h i t u r e because they may not be spendingany money on them, and secondly while what they eat inside the home i s not known to others, hence may be not important, what they wear and have at home may beimportant since they are noticedbyothers as status symbols. Continuing relations w iththe v illage, bringingfood and other materials from the villages may be another survival strategy for the urbanpoor. Rural migrants' relations with their villages have beendecreasing over the years as they become more settled inthe city. For example, only 55.6 % o f those who migrated to the city 40 to 50 years ago continued their relationswiththe village, whereas 89.3 %o fthe recent migrants didso (METU, 2000). However, the reliance on the economic support received fiom the village may increase under the recent economic crises. Inan empirical study conducted inAnkara's gecekondu areas in 1999 (METU, 2000), 75.5 YOo f the respondents continued their relations with their villages, andreceiving economic support fiom the village had increased inrecent years. On the other hand, there are several factors that prevent it. First, some migrants have already sold their landinthe village and/or do not have relatives livinginthe village anymore. And secondly, the 'forced migration' fiom the villages inthe East and Southeast has beencutting off migrants from their rural properties and resources. The 'village-city project' can be one way o f solving this problem. Another survival strategy o f the urban poor is the solidarity and support they develop with 'their own people.' This refers to ethnic origin, religious sect, being from the same region (hemgehrilik-- c ommon o rigin), as well as political patronage. A s we have seen, the tendency o f people to differentiate themselves on the basis o f ethnicity, sect and hemgehrilik is getting stronger, and more political, under the influence o f the intensifylng competition inthe urbanjob market and for urbanland. Research has demonstrated that the majority o f migrants are members o f 'village solidarity associations' (koy dayanzgma dernekleri). Through this membership, they reach 'their own people,' and receive help and services. Yet, whether these organizations cater for the needs o fthe very poor i s disputable: they tend to include those relatively better-off migrants who can afford paying the 54  membership fee, and exclude the very poor (Erder, 1995, 1996; METU, 2000). These associations are usually organized on the basis o f shared ethnicity and sect, and fbrther exclude those having different ethnic and sectarian affiliations (METU, 2000). Furthermore, political clientalism i s often used as a survival strategy by the urbanpoor. For example, Islamist Municipalities distribute free coal and food to their supporters (direct help), and they give them larger shares in the legalization process of the gecekondu land (indirect help). RuralPoverty Poverty i s largely a matter o f the rural in the Turkish context. Many families have been migrating to cities to escapepoverty intheir villages. Rural households received 23.2 % o f the national income in 1987, whereas urbanhouseholds received 76.8 % (SIS, 1990). Thesenumbers were 39.9 % and60.1 % respectively in 1973. Sixty-five percent o fthe poor live inrural areas, whereas 35 percent live inurban areas; and while 30 persons out o f 100 are poor in rural areas, in urban areas 17 persons out o f 100 are poor (Dansun, 1997). In rural households, the view that as the size o f the household increases, it contributes to the household's economy interms o f unpaid family labor does not hold true any more. On the contrary, the largerthe household size, the higher i s the number o funemployed inthe family (Erdogan, 1997). InruralTurkey, wecantalk aboutthreemajortypes ofproduction, namely, capitalist production based on large-scale land ownership, production for the market by small-scale land owners (mostly uses unpaid family labor; 60 % o f the rural population is engaged in this type o f agriculture), and subsistence production. InEastern and Southeastem Anatolia, large-scale landownership has not tumedinto capitalist production, preservingits traditional (feudal) character to a large extent. Thus, we can conclude that the agricultural sector has failed to organize itself in capitalistic terms, contributing to capital accumulation only in limited measure. This has created a strong tendency in peasants to move to cities. Inthe 1950s, the structural changes in the agricultural sector, such as the introduction of tractors, fertilizers and irrigation systems, which aimed to increase productivity in the sector and to integrate it into market economy, pushed large numbers o fpeasantto cities. The mass rural- to-urban migrationhasbeen going on since then inan escalating manner. This has produced squatter settlements on the city peripheries that are the residential environments o fthe urban poor. However, still an important number o f peasants remain invillages. They are mostly small-scale land owners, and they survive on government subsidies, which might be viewed as the state's paying to peasants for their 'forced-residence,' as a type o f social security paid by the state to the rural poor (Dansuk, 1997). Inthis way, while poverty in rural areas is kept under control in the short run, in the long run, it is reproduced by keeping peasants away from the 'real forces o f the market,' creating an agricultural structure with low efficiency and limitedcapital accumulation (Dansuk, 1997). The recent attempts to cut back government subsidies (Bugra, 2001) means chronic rural-to-urban migration and persistent poverty both in rural and urban areas (Dansuk, 1997). In addition, the economic restructuring process that i s takingplace inthe Southeast inthe context o f the GAP Project (the Southeastem Anatolia Project), in which the prevailing feudal relations are to dissolve and to release a large number o f people from their agricultural engagement, is expected to 55  create a strong tendency inpeople to migrate to cities in search of employment. However, this new group ofmigrants willbe the most disadvantagedamongmigrants since 'poverty in turns' (Iyk and Pmarcioglu, 2001) period is over, competition over urban land and urban jobs (both in the formal and informal sector) i s intense, excluding newcomers fi-om the housing andjob markets. When we analyze rural poverty in terms o f regional distribution, we see that in the Aegean and Marmararegions, 5.4 % o fthe ruralpopulationi s below the poverty line, inthe Mediterranean region this numberi s 22 %, inCentral Anatolia 29 % (the average income o f these families i s 19 % lower than the amount o f income defined as the poverty line), inthe Black Sea 11.6 % (the poorest get only 3.56 % o fthe total income o fthe rural households in the region), and in the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia 32 % (the household size in the poorest segments in this region i s 7.87, while it is 6.05 in the poor rural households in average, which means that the largefamily size acts as decreasing the amount of income per personand hence causingpoverty) (Dumanli, 1996). Interms o f inequality withinrural and urban areas, we can say that there is relatively less inequality in rural areas (the gini coefficient i s 0.41) than inurbanareas (the gini coefficient is 0.52). Thus, we can conclude that poverty is more commonly experienced inruralthanurbanareas (Dumanli, 1996). UnevenRegionalDevelopmentand Poverty InTurkey, there is unevendevelopment and highly unequal distribution of wealth among the regions, the West being highly advantaged and the East being highly disadvantaged. The metropolitan cities located in Western Anatolia receive much o f the national income. For example, Istanbul, the biggest metropolis in Turkey where extreme poverty and extreme wealth coexist in sharp contrast, received 21.8 YOo f the national income in 1995 (it was up to 27.5 % in 1998, which was 14 % 20 years ago), followed by Izmir(8 YO),Ankara, the capital (7.5 %), Kocaeli (4.4 YO),andBursa(4 YO)(Sonmez, 1998). On the other hand, many cities in Eastern Anatolia receive minimal or no shares fi-om the national income. For example, Bayburt, Hakkari and Ardahan received no shares fi-omthe national income, and Tunceli (0.1 %), Igdir (0.1 %), Bingo1(0.1 %), Simak (0.1. %), A@ (0.1 %), Bitlis (0.1 %), and Mu?(0.1 %) received only very minimalshares (Sonmez, 1998; pp. 260-292). In1996, the yearly income per person was $7,096 inKocaeli (this changed after the earthquake of August 17, 1999), $4,286 in Izmir, $4,286 in Istanbul, $4,242 in Kirklareli (all are cities in the West), and $3,976 in Ankara (the capital), whereas it was $654 inMug, $667 inAgn, $813 inBitlis, $863 inHakkari,$915 inBingol, $972 inSimak, and $997 in Van (all are cities in the East). In the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia Regions, 47 out o f 100persons live below the poverty line, whereas this number i s down to 28 in the Mediterranean Region, 27 in the Central Anatolia Region, 22 in the Black Sea Region, and 5 inthe Aegean and Marmara Regions; and out o f 100poor persons, 40 live in the East and Southeast, 26 live in Central Anatolia, 18 live inthe Black Sea, 15 live inthe Mediterranean, and 6 live inthe Aegean and Marmara (Dansuk, 1997; p.44). Inthe Aegean region, the percentage o f persons living in absolute poverty i s much less (3 %) than in Eastem and Southeastem Anatolia (18 %) (Erdogan, 1997). On the other hand, interms o f the unequal distributiono f income, the Marmara Regionhas the highest inequality (the gini 56  coefficient i s 0.56), whereas Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia has the lowest inequality (the gini coefficient is 0.37 and 0.38 respectively) (SIS, 1994). Intems ofhealth services, in1995, while there were 329 persons per doctor in Ankara, 504 in Izmir, and 541 in Istanbul, there were 4,533 persons per doctor in vim&, 3,105 in Am, 3,067 in Sanliurfa, and 3,030 in Mu?(Sonmez, 1998). Interms o f schools, there i s no reliable statistics today, although it i s common knowledge that many schools in the East and Southeast suffer from lack o f or inadequate teaching personnel, as well as infrastructure. Additionally, in 1995, while there were 1,295 private car ownership per 10,000 persons inAnkara, 932 inIstanbul, and 912 inIzmir, this number was 28 in Sirnak, 42 inMug,44 inTunceli, 44 inHakkariand 44 inAEn (Sonmez, 1998). Additionally, the production levels o f cities vary significantly. In 1999, the Marmara Region, by its share of 36.5 %, made the highest contribution to the National Product, while the Eastern Anatolia Region, by its share of 4.3 %, made the lowest contribution (SIS, 1999). Inverybroadterms, this inequalityinthe distributionofwealthbetweenthe Western and Eastern regions is the outcome of the historical uneven development o f the country, including the economic policies favoring Western regions over the East and the Southeast in whichthe harshclimate andunproductive soil o fthe East, amongother factors, have played a role. In addition, the military confrontation between the Turkish armed forces and the P K K (the Kurdistan Workers Party) since the mid-1980s acted to accelerate poverty in the East and Southeast. Those villagers who could not survive in their villages any more because o f political and economic reasons had to move out o f their villages (since 1984 about 2,500 villages were evacuated) to cities, mainly to Istanbuland Izmir inthe West, to Adana, Mersin and Antalya in the South, and to Diyarbalur and Urfa in the Southeast, forming their 'ghettos' on the outskirts o f the cities, and in some cases, their 'tent cities' or 'shantytowns.' These people hadto leavebehindtheir landthat theyusedto liveon, coming to the city without any economic resources. This new wave o f migration brings the poorest rural families to the city which would have never migrated if there had not been such changesintheir region, and it t akes place as mass migration, dragging children and the elderly in the families to the city without the necessary preparations to accommodate them (Erder, 1998a). The highrates of unemployment in cities, especially in the Southeast (for example, inDiyarbakir the unemployment rate i s 70 YO,and it reaches 95 % inthe migrant group) hindersnewcomers' participationinthe labor force. Ina gecekondu neighborhood in Pendik (Istanbul), 32 persons shared one house (theyhadmovedfrom the Southeast), and in the family only five persons were working; the children worked inthe street, selling tissues, washing car windows when cars waited at the red traffic light, and the like (Erder, 1998b). Since their main concern was to bring home money needed for the basic daily survival of their families, the children from the recent migrant families moved from one marginal activity to another, and many lacked the opportunity to attend school or to get vocational training(Erder, 1998b). 57  To combat with severe poverty and political instability inthe East and Southeast, the government i s working on a new project, namely the 'Village-City Project' (Koy-Kent Projesi) aimed at relocating people back in their villages, and Mesudiye i s chosen for the pilot project. Women and Poverty At the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, the feminization o fpoverty was a major theme, which addressed women's worsening economic conditions as the result o f recession and adjustment policies in their response to the recent global economic crisis. It was emphasized that 70 % o f the persons below the poverty line were women. In an empirical research conducted for the World Bank (Ecevit, Erman, Kalaycioglu and Rittersberger-Tiliq, 1999) in four cities in Turkey (namely, Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir and Mersin), it was found that women's poverty inthe Turkish context was largely a family issue rather than an individual problem since the family occupied a central position in Turkish society, and divorce and women-headed or single-family households were few in the poor segments o f society compared, for example, to Latin American societies. For example, inan empirical study (METU, 2000), 281 women respondents were married and 13 were widows, and only one was divorced and one was single; and in 13 families out of 300, women were family heads. [The percentage o f women-headed households in urban Turkey in general is 11.1 YO(Hacettepe University Institute o f Population Studies, 1998)l. This should not, however, make us ignore women-headed households. They are those which usually face acute poverty. In women-headed households, in every socio-economic group, the annual income was found to be less than those headed by men, both in the urban and rural (Kasnakoglu, 1998), and the difference between men- and women-headed households increased as the socio-economic level o f the household decreased, that is, in the lowest 20 YOsegment, the income o f women-headed households was one-third o fthe men-headed households. And 80 % o fthe working women lacked social security, while 47 % o f the working men did not have social security (Kasnakoglu, 1998). Furthermore, women make 66.35 % o f the lowest paid labor, while men constitute 33.65 % (Dansuk, 1997), which points to women's difficulty o f economic survival without a man's income. The majority of women in Turkish society lack independent economic resources and control over financial matters (SPO, 2001). In a survey, those women who lacked any individual income was found to be above 77% in every income group (Karaduman, 2000). Inthe men-headed households, family's worsening economic conditions bringnew responsibilities andburdens for women. When husbands are unemployed (a rising number o f 'household heads' lose their economic means when factories andworkshops are closed, or employees are laid off when their employers (both in the private and public sector) go for labor reduction, or self-employed and small-scale employers g o bankrupt), or when they lack steady jobs, women in poor families participate increasingly in money-eaming activities, ranging from cleaning houses and offices to doing piecework at home, from working in clothing workshops to selecting beans, lentil, and the like in storage houses (Ecevit, Erman, Kalaycioglu and Rittersberger-Tiliq, 1999; White, 1994; Demir, 1993). Between 1980-1990, the number o f women who participated inthe labor force increased by 58  88.3 in Istanbul (Sonmez, 1996). Women fiu-ther knit, sew and do needlework at home to sell. Earnings women receive through their employnent in the informal sector enable the family's economic survival, andinthis way the decrease inreal wages inthe formal sector i s accommodated. Ina research conducted inMamak(Ankara) in 1990, inwhich 111families were interviewed(Demir, 1993), two-thirds of the women employed in the informal sector had startedworking after 1980, especially after 1985, and they were engaged in childcare, housecleaning, knittingand sewing (Demir, 1993). The jobs available to women in poor families are low-paying jobs without job security. They are seen by the families and usually by the women themselves as 'not-real' jobs done temporarily until the family secure back or improve its economic standing (Erman, 2001a). Peasant women prefer city to village because they expect to be 'housewives' in the city, living comfortable lives away from the burdensome work o f the village (Erman, 1997a). And they tend to stop working in the city when their economic conditions improve. Here it i s important to mentionthat, while the concem o f many rural migrant families for family honor (namus) tends to keep women inside the home, the increasing poverty makes women seek paid employment outside the home. When the concerns for the family honor are so strong as to preventwomen from working outside the home, or when the family suffers acute poverty, children may be placed injobs, sometimes part-time(e.g. working on weekends in their free time from school), and sometimes full- time, droppingout ofschool. Women's contributions to the survival o ftheir families facing poverty are not limited to their participation in the labor market. Women, as a survival strategy, try to economize on consumption (Ecevit, Erman, Kalaycioglu and Rittersberger-Tilig, 1999; METU, 2000). Inan empirical study conducted inthe gecekondu areas ofAnkara (METU, 2000), 82.3 YO o fthe women contributed to the familybudgetby engaging infood production at home. For example, they monthly made bread at home ('winter bread'/ In,~Zzkyu$z)insteadofbuyingit at the local grocery store. Ina research (METU, 2000), it was found out that 83.4 'YOof the households produced food at home, such as conserved and dried food (81.8 'YO), pickles (93.5 %), turhuna (dried yoghurt and dough to make soup) and eri@ (vermicelli) (63.2 %) and bread (73.3 %). And 56.2 % did needlework and knitted for their families (METU, 2000). Furthermore, while tend to spare money for their individual expenses, women tend to givepriority to the needs o ftheir families and childrenover theirs (Kog, 1997). Poverty affects women more than men regarding living conditions. Since it is women who spendmuch time at home anddo the housework, when, because ofpoverty, the house i s too cold inthe winters, or humid, or there i s no electricity and/or runningwater in the house, it is womenwho suffer the most from it. Inanin-depthresearchconducted with 50 housewives,xviii respondents stated that it was their husbands who made the decision about where to live, and the husbandstended to choose the cheapesthouse to rent because o f economic considerations. As a result, the women sufferedfrom rheumatism, bone diseases, allergy and respiratory problems, which were caused by the unhealthy living conditions o f their homes ($enol-Cantek, 2001). The women also suffered psychologically when they failed to satisfy the needs of their children, especially o f those attending school, and when they failed to entertain their guests 'appropriately' ($enol-Cantek, 2001). 59  In brief, poverty increases women's work load in the family, and women play a significant role inthe survival o ftheir families duringtimes o f economic crisis. Yet they are disadvantaged in terms o f access to power and decision making in the family. Thus, any international hnding agency should take this into consideration, recognizing the role women play in coping with poverty and the power men have in the family, controlling resources and limiting women's access to them. Credits (business, house and land credits) and funding should be made accessible to women, and poverty alleviation policies should give greater roles and initiatives to women, integrating them into the economic and social life. Any poverty alleviation policy should address gender inequality, recognizing it as a major obstacle inthe fight against poverty inthe long run(Akqar, 1998). Women's poverty and the burdensthey carry incoping with poverty increase as the family's income decreases due to husbands'unemployment or their low salaries and insecure jobs, and as the cost o f living rises due to highinflation and decrease in real wages. This picture describes mainlythe experiences o fwomen inurbanpoor families. The experiences o fwomen inthe Southeast, onthe other hand, havetheir specificities. Traditional patriarchy rulingthe region, makingwomen marryat a very young age, tends to prevent women from attaining schools. InEastern Anatolia 42 % o f the women and in Southeastern Anatolia 55 % o fthe women are illiterate, andinvim& this numberis upto 80 YO(Sevindi, 1998). As a result, many women whose mother tongue i s Kurdish cannot speak Turkish, which hinders their interaction in the public sphere, including hospitals and government offices (Ucan Haber, 2001). Communication and social interactionbecome a serious problem especially for those women who, once having lived intheir villages where people spoke Kurdish, have moved to cities where Turkish i s the prevalent language, and where different values and ways o f life exist. This impedes the women taking active roles in fighting poverty. Furthermore, manywomen inthe East do not practice birthcontrol andhave many children, andthis poses abigchallenge to children's education, especially inthe case o fthose families which are dislocated from their villages and try to survive on the peripheries o f cities. As we have seen in the example o f recent migrant families who make a living by garbage picking, children may be taken out o f school and placed invery low-status and undesirable (socially and health-wise) 'jobs' inorder to contribute to the family's economic survival. Children'sEmployment,Educationand Poverty The definition and measurement o f poverty is moving away "from a minimal, physical survival notion in the direction o f a relative, varying definition which puts increasing emphasis on social survival and starts to attach value to the quality of life that even the poorest in a community should be able to enjoy" (MacPherson and Silbum, 1998, p.2). And as the indicators o f quality o f life, school enrolment rates, along with life expectancy and infant mortality, are emphasized. Education i s one o f the three criteria used to develop the 'Human Development Index' (the others are health and income). Children are society's investment in its hture, and it i s crucial that they receive adequate education to develop their human capacity. And children's education turns out to be inadequate when mothers are not educated (Kagitqibagi, 1998). 60  When we consider the relationship between education and poverty in the Turkish context, we see that 31.94 % o f the poor are illiterate, 24.42 % are literate but do not primary school diplomas, and 38.91 % are primary school graduates. Thus, illiterates and those who do not have primary school diplomas constitute 56.36 % o f the poor. This number reaches 67.43 % in the rural areas, while it i s 53.51 % in urban areas (Erdogan, 1997). On the basis o f this data, we can conclude that there is a direct correlation between poverty and educational level. At this point, it i s important to acknowledge the presence o f the informal sector where many o f these people are employed, which has as its major characteristics the lack o fjob security and social security benefits and unreliable payment, along with its easy entrance and the low educational levels o f employees. Among the working poor, those who were self-employed constituted 24.67 %, unpaid family laborers 49.86 YO,those working for daily wage 16.56 YO,salaried workers 8.61 YO,and employers 0.3 1 % (SPO, 2001a). Furthermore, increase in educational levels does not automatically bring employment and improved living conditions. Ina research inprogress conducted by the author in a gecekondu settlement in Ankara, people (rural-to-urban migrants; the majority was literate without primary school diplomas or primary school graduates) complained about unemployment, saying that they had made every effort to educate their children (many of the children were high-school graduates), yet they were unemployed. One woman said, "In the past, even primary school graduate could easily find jobs in government offices, but now our high-school graduate children cannot findjobs." In 1999, the unemployedyoungpopulationincities reached23 YO(SIS, 2001b). Furthermore,there is the gender dimension regardingeducation and poverty. Inthe illiterate poor group, the number ofwomen is twice that ofmen(SPO, 200al). On the other hand, inthe literate poor group who do not have primary school diplomas, there are more menthanwomen. This points to families' discriminatory behavior towards their daughters, providingthe chance to attend school selectively on the basis of gender. (For more detailed information on the subject, see pages 147-148, SPO, 2001a). Gender and regional disparities overlap to intensifywomen's disadvantagedpositions. The 'HumanDevelopment Index' for women in developed regions in Turkey is three times more than those in underdeveloped regions (the East and the Southeast). Women's access to education becomes more limited in Eastern regions, the women in the Southeast being the most disadvantaged. InEastem Anatolia 42 YOo f the women, and inSoutheastem Anatolia 55 % o f the women are illiterate, and in Simak this number i s up to 80 % (Sevindi, 1998). Traditional patriarchal values that disapprovewomen's participation inthe public realm play an important role inpreventinggirls from attending schools. This can be overcome bothby changingfamily's attitudes towards girls' education andby forming necessary institutions to encourage it, such as boarding schools for girls inthe region and providingtransportation to adjacent schools (Konta?, 1998). Recently, 7.83 % of the population who are at the age of schooling (age 6 and above) has moved into the poverty category (Erdogan, 1997). This numberrises upto 23.33 % when poverty is defined interms of basic needs instead of minimum food consumption (minimumcalorie neededfor biological survival). Whenpoverty increases, childrenare taken out o f s chool and placed in jobs (mostly inprecarious jobs in very disadvantaged positions). Although children's employment below the age o f 15 i s prohibited in 61  intemational agreements, in Turkey the economically active group i s defined as those between the ages 12-65, thus accepting the employment o f children above the age o f 11. Between 1980-1990, the number o f children ages 12-14 increased by 61 YOin Istanbul (it was about 50,000 in 1980 androse up to 80,000 in 1990), and those ages 15-19 increasedby 57 % (Sonmez, 1996). They were mostly employed in the manufacturing sector (Sonmez, 1996). In a research conducted in Mamak (Ankara) in 1990 (Demir, 1990), 35 % of the families hadtheir s ons and 9 % o f the families hadtheir daughters working outside the home. Inearlier studies (e.g. Senyapili, 1978; Sencer, 1979), the working children in rural migrant/gecekondu families were foundto bemuchless. InUrfawhere poor families work as seasonal agricultural laborers, children's school attendancedrops to 2/3 during the harvest season, and as a school principal in a gecekondu district stated, 1/3 o f the students work outside school hours, and this numberhas been increasing rapidly (Can, 2001). Ina study conducted in Izmir's residential areas where the very poor are clustered (namely, inner city areas) (Sonmez, 2001), it was found out that children started to participate inthe labor force when they were about 12. In the recent years, 14 % of the 12-19 age group became involvedinmoney-earning activities. And the younger the child was, the higher was the probability that he would lack social security. These working children were usually concentrated insmall-scale manufacturing. Moreover, when mothers start working outside the home because o f economic reasons, older children take care of their younger siblings and cany out housework. This was the case in a study carried out inthe inner city areas of Izmir where families were young with many children and where neighborly cooperation and help was absent (Sonmez, 2001). In brief, many children drop out of school to work outside the home (mostly boys) or to work inside the home (mostly girls). "Therefore povertyi s beingtransferred to the young generations'' (Sonmez, 2001; p.7). Although the level o f education in the society has been increasing (the 5-years- compulsory educationhas become 8 years), there are still significant inequalities interms of access to educational facilities between urban and rural areas, within urban areas, and between regions. InDiyarbalur, 86 % o f boys and 62 % o f girls attend primary school, and inurbanDiyarbakirthese numbers are 93 %and65 YO,andinruralDiyarbalur80 YOand49 %respectively (Kontq, 1998). And halfofthe women inDiyarbalurare illiterate, whereas it is 28 %nation-wide (Konta?, 1998). Only 42 % o fthe children between ages 7-18 attend school in Diyarbalur (Goktiirk, 1998). According to another study, only 52.4 % o f the children at the age of primary school education could attend school, and this number dropped to 34.3 % inthe case o fmiddle school (0 1998). The same report states Report, that 1,259 schools were closed inthe Region (CHP Report, 1998). The fact that many villages inthis region do not have schools and many schools are closed due to terror inthe region, and that the teaching personnel is inadequate in numbers, account for the larger illiterate group inthe InIstanbul, every year 60,000 childrenreach the school age due to population increase, and about 1500 class rooms have to be built to satisfy this demand. The annual gap inthe number o f classrooms is 1000 (Sonmez, 1996). InMersin, which receives mass migration from the Southeast, 23 YOo f the families fail to send their childrento school, and ofthis 18.5 YOwork inpaidjobs (GoktiirkandKaygalak, 2001). Not only the education of the poor, but also the poverty of teachers has become an importantissue inTurkey. Most of the teachers cannot live on their salaries (85.7 %), and 62  many carry out money-earning activities in addition to their teaching jobs in order to manage their lives economically (23 %), including street-vending(Egitim-Sen, 2001). 85.7 % o f teachers say that they do not eam enough money to support themselves, and 75 % cannot afford to buy daily newspapers. The inadequate pay o f teachers and the economic problems they have been facing have eroded the status o f teachers in society: 68 % o f respondents didnot want their childrento become teachers (Egitim-Sen, 2001a). The Elderly and Poverty As observed inthe cases o f women and children, we observe an increasing number o f older people (above the age o f 60) who start to engage in money-earning activities as a result o f intensifyingpoverty: InIstanbul, while there were 37,360 older people inthe labor marketin 1980, this number increasedto 58,000 in1990; and their numberdidnot decrease but remained stable inratio to the larger city population (Sonmez, 1996). This points to a very vulnerable population in the face of poverty. In a study conducted with persons receiving financial assistance fi-om the 'Fak-Fuk-Fon' Fund (Sallan-Giil), elderly persons expressedtheir need o f support from the State (food, fiel, cash); they were the ones among respondentswho hadthe worst living conditions. Poverty Eradication Policies The State Planning Organization has developed an action program to attack poverty (SPO 2001a). In the report, the target groups included the employed without adequate income; families which face poverty as feudal relations dissolve (mainly in the Southeast); women, the elderly, the disabled and children, including single women (divorced, widow); the exploited women inthe informal sector; earthquake victims; small-scale entrepreneurs; as well as rural and urban families living inpoverty. The report suggests concrete solutions to the problemo fpoverty. They include legalreforms (e.g. changes inthe Civil Code which would make it possible for women to keep some family assets after divorce; and changes in the social security laws to include those working in the informal sector); reforms in state policies and institutions ( e g in SHCEK-- Institute o f Social Services and Children's Protection, KSSGM-- Directorate General on the Status and Problems o f Women, YOK-- Higher Education Council); opening branches o f state welfare institutions in the East and Southeast; opening shelters for women both inurban and rural areas; prohibiting children's employment below the age 15, increasing the number o f vocational schools and providing credits to students in vocational schools; providing credits to small-scale entrepreneurs; supporting agricultural cooperatives, preventing unregistered labor in the rural sector, providing necessary financial and technical support to increase productivity, and introducing modem cultivation techniques (pilot projects should be carried out within the GAP Project in the Southeast); abolishing the requirement that in order to have insurance in the rural sector, one should be a family head, so that many women who work as unpaid family laborers can be insured; integrating the inactive housing stock in the city centers into the housing market addressing to lower-income groups; making birth control techniques more available to families; as well as providing direct financial aid to families. Here it i s crucial 63  that the money is to be paid to the woman in the family, and not to the family head (SPO, 2001a). Inaddition to the policies proposed to eradicate poverty, it is necessaryto mention the concrete actions o f the State in this direction. For example, the 'Social Assistance and Solidarity Fund' ('Sosyal YardimlaSma ve DayaniJma Tepik Fonu' known as the 'Fak-Fuk- Font-- Fakir, Fukara Fonu) was founded in 1987, which defined as its major goal to eradicate poverty (Sallan-Giil, 2001). This i s a new approach to cope with poverty since historicallypoverty has beenhandledwithin traditional mechanisms, such as the community and the family. By 2000, 13 % o f the population received financial assistance from the Fund, and inthe last four years, this numberreached 22 YO(15 millionpersons). And with the February2001 crisis, this number is expected to be higher. However, there are several problems with the practices o f the Foundations (933 in number) hctioning inthis institutionalframework. First, although the Fundwas originally established t o address the poor, its financial resources have beenused for other reasons, especially to pay internal debts. Secondly, there are no objective criteria to determine who the target population will be, and the distribution o f resources fi-om the Fund has been arbitrary and highly politized. And finally, the Fund offers only temporary solutions to poverty, for example, by providing food and fuel once in a while," and lacks long-term programs to integrate the poor into the labor force by teaching them skills and professions. Onthe other hand, the increasing share o f education from the Fundinrecent years has been a positive development? an attempt to eradicate poverty by equipping the young generation with necessary tools to reach jobs with satisfactory pays and social security benefits. The Fundhas beenbeneficialinhandlingthe increasing expensesineducation due to the recent eight-year compulsory schooling, particularly in the East and Southeast (Sallan-Giil, 2001). Another positive development has been to spend some o f the Fund's resources on the East and Southeast (20 % of the money given from the Fundwent to the people inthese two regions). NOTES 1. See the last section for informationon the Fund. 2. Gecekondu i s the name given to squatter houses in Turkey. Its literal translation means 'landed over night.' 3. See Erman (1996, 1997b) and Ayata (1989) for the preferences o f rural migrants regardingtheir gecekonddapartment preferences. 4. In another research conducted in four gecekondu areas of Ankara in which 300 households were interviewed (METU, 2000), it was found out that 96.33 YOowned refrigerators, 96.3 % owned color television sets, 90.33 % owned telephones, 67.3 % owned hlly automatic washing machines, 79 % owned vacuum cleaners, 10.67 % owned mobile phones, 10 % owneddishwashers, and 16 % ownedcars. 64  5. For example, in an empirical study (METU, 2000) conducted in Ankara's gecekondu areas, 51.8 % o f the respondents said that their present economic s ituations were worse whencomparedto thepast. 6. The researchwas conducted inMamak, Kegioren and Balgat (Ankara). The husbandsof 46 respondentswere employedinthe informal sector; 48 were migrants, and 40 were from the East and Southeast; their average age was 35; and except one, they were all mothers. 7. See Egitim-Sen(2001b) for information on the geographical distribution of classrooms, teachers and studentsinTurkey. 8. 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DefiningPoverty Poverty can be understood and defined either as a concept deriving from low income o r as a c onsequence o f insufficient disposable income as reflected inpeople's consumption patterns or general well-being. What i s important i s the basis on which poverty i s evaluated. The concept o f `indirect poverty' i s measured according to the disposable income o f households, whereas the concept o f `direct poverty' measures how low income influences consumption, lifestyle or the accumulation o f other factors that cause personal deprivation. Three different approaches can be used in defining poverty: basic needs, relative poverty and multiple deprivation factors. Depending on the approach, poverty can be definedinthree different ways: 1) The poverty line is defined according to the minimum income required to satisfy a person's basic needs. This basic needs approach i s generally based on the cost o f a basket o f everyday consumer commodities. 2) The poverty line i s defined individually by the society concerned according to its income distribution. The classic method i s to draw the line at 50 per cent o f median income or consumption. 3) The third model defines as poor those who, in addition to having low incomes, suffer severe deprivation in other sub-factors o f material well-being. Typical such additional factors are unemployment, poor housing, poor health and inadequate education (Orshansky 1965b). In the case o f deprivation, the problem is often the lack o f key factors necessary for well-being (Eurostat 2000). 1.2. Measuring Poverty Traditionally, there have been two approaches to measure the poverty (Saunders 1998). The first i s absolute poverty and the second is relative poverty. Recently, a new approach i s added which i s termed as subjective poverty. In absolute poverty approach, some criteria relating to income or consumption i s set and households (or individuals) that fall under this criterion are classified as poor -- inability to meet very basic needs. In relative poverty, households are ordered by their income or consumption, and households falling a certain point are identified as poor- distance from the community norm. In subjective poverty (or felt poverty), the criterion i s obtained from the individuals by asking at what income level they meet all their needs. (Gordon et a1 2000, Bradshaw 2001, Forster 1994) Any attempt to measure the adequacy o f resources or the prevalence o f poverty requires that a poverty line (or threshold) be established against which the living standards o f an individual, family or household can be measured (Bradshaw and Finch 2001). That is, whichever approach i s used, if the aim i s to describe persons living in 72  poverty, we should define who i s poor and who is not. Defining a poverty line i s necessary ifwe are going to analyze not only the incidence o f poverty, but also the depth o f poverty (how poor are the poor?). Such an understanding necessitates that the analysis must, o fcourse, bedone for different family types, persons o fdifferent ages, andthe like. Drawing any poverty line i s arbitrary to some degree, even if there i s conceptual agreement on what poverty means. But in this case, even conceptual agreement i s lacking. Popular and expert opinions apparently clash on whether and to what extent poverty should be defined in absolute terms - inability to meet very basic needs - or in relative terms - distance from the community norm. In fact, upon closer examination, virtually all measures o f low income are relative (except the most extreme), and they differ mainly intheir underlying assumptions about how wide a gap should exist between "the poor" and fellow citizens within the same society. This gap can be defined interms o f income or interms of consumption. One exampleo f an absolute poverty line i s the World Bank's extreme poverty line o f $1U.S. per day, which i s applied to developing countries as a proxy for a minimum survival budget. Although it may be instrumental measuring and comparing poverty in developing countries, it i s basically irrelevant to understanding poverty in advanced, industrialized countries, since virtually all their citizens have incomes above that minimal level. So-called "absolute" poverty lines do, in fact, embody community norms and standards, at least to a limited degree. Indeed, it i s acknowledged that "the basic needs poverty line i s not absolute.. .to be meaningful, a poverty line has to be connected to the society inwhich people live." (Measuring Poverty in Canada, 2001) Most social policy advocates have strongly defended a relative definition o f poverty, arguing that to be poor is to be distant from the mainstream o f society and to be excluded from the resources, opportunities and sources o f subjective and objective well- being which are readily available to others. Adam Smith himself closely embraced a relative definition o fpoverty, arguing that to be poor was to have to go without what was needed to be a "creditable" member o f society. H e noted that, in his day and age, a man needed a linen shirt if he was to appear in public "without shame." What defines being poor i s not just being without a shirt (any shirt), but being without the means to be minimally respected ina particular society at a particular time. Similarly, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has argued that absolute poverty lines have little meaning in advanced industrialized societies, and that poverty should be seen conceptually not as deprivation o f very basic needs, but as exclusion from the standards o f living broadly available to others inthe same society. As they note, '!inorder to participate fully inthe social life o f a c ommunity, individuals may need a 1eve1o f resources that is n o t t 00 inferior t o the norm o f that community." They add that, "from a normative perspective, it may be considered unfair for members o f a community to benefit unequally from a general increase inprosperity."(OECD Employment Outlook, June 2001, p. 41) 73  It is very difficult to arguethat relative well-being does not matter to people. How many o f us would prefer to have an income of 300,000 TL/month in a society where the average was 500,000 TL/month, compared to having an income o f 290,000 TWmonth in a society where the average was 250,000 TL/month? It i s simply untrue to say that people are indifferent to where they sit inthe total income distribution compared to others, even provided their basic needs are met. Research also demonstrates that many key social outcomes such as health and literacy are closely linked to the relative incomes o f people, rather than the extent to which they suffer absolute deprivation. The Nobel-prize-winning economist, Amartya Sen, uses as a telling example the fact that blacks in the United States have much lower life expectancy than do citizens of the state o f Kerala in India, despite having much higher absolute incomes (1983). In advanced industrialized countries, the link between health outcomes and average GDP per person breaks down beyond a threshold level and it is most closely linked to income gaps. The central point is that virtually all measures of poverty are relative. Whether we define poverty in terms o f a given level o f income compared to the average (an income line) or in terms o f the cost o f a basket of goods and services compared to the average, we still have to settle on how great a distance we want to exist between ``the poor" and others who live inthe same society. This decision i s explicit inrelative income lines such as the Low Income Measure (LIM), but more implicit inthe c onsumption- based approach. All measures o f poverty, whether they are based on income or a basket o f goods and services, are also arbitrary, at least to some degree. It i s really a matter o f values how great a distance we are prepared to accept between the "poor" and the rest o f society. Most social welfare advocates support a relatively generous poverty line, because we recognize needs as social as well as physical. To be poor is to experience a significant degree o f exclusion from the wider society, and not just to be deprived o f very basic needs. It is unfortunate that the development literature generally takes either point of view but rarely both. It i s the case that relative poverty i s often found to be related to or synonymous o f `inequality' and therefore of no primary relevance for `actual', that is `absolute' poverty issues and policy. Infact, there i s no reason why both concepts should not be considered simultaneously'. In the past, too much priority has been given to absolute poverty over relative deprivation, or equivalently social exclusion. It i s important to reestablish some parity betweenboth points o f view inall cases where this i s justified. (For such an effort refer to Atkinson and Bourguignon 1999) "There are countries inAfrica and Asia where the dominant problem i s absolute poverty and where social exclusion or relative deprivation i s presently o f lesser importance. But there are countries where both physical and social poverty are of concern, as in many parts o f Latin America." (Bourgignon 1999) 74  2. Sample and Data Two sets o f data are collected in this research. The first set comprises the information collected through a survey and the second set includes 68 in-dept interviews conducted with 38 households indifferent parts o f the country. 2.1. Survey The sample used inthis research represents Turkey and is drawnby State Institute o f Statistics (SIS) in2001. It i s a multi-stage stratified cluster sample which allows comparisons byregion and rural-urbanplaces. The unit o f analysis inthis research i s household. The sampling design requires stratifying the country into 7 regions at first stage. At the second stage, residential units ineach region is divided into population strata such as places with 0-2000 population, 2000-5000, 5000-10000, 10000-20000, 20000-50000, 50000-100000, 100000-150000 and places with more than 150000 population. Clusters are formed by combining 30 households within each population strata. At final stage, clusters are selected within each population stratum independently by using random selection technique. Clusters obtained this way are proportionate to their size in the population. The initial size o f the sample selected with this technique was 8000 households. Giventhe budget o f the research, the sample size reduced to 4000 by way o f resampling which was done the following way. Clusters are isolated from their respective stratum information and assigned random numbers. 50 percent of them were selected randomly with the help o f computer. Later, they were identified by combining with their respective stratum information. Considering the possible loses due to non-response, the sample size was determined as 4300. Each household has a substitute in case no one was found at home at the first address. Addresses from 1997 population count administrative division were used inthe sample. The following table provides information to compare sample and population distributions o fregions, rural urban places. Table 1. Sample and PopulationDistributionofRegionsand RuralUrbanPlaces,% Sample Population (2000') Urban' 83.1 70.6 Rural 16.93 29.4 Mediterranean 12.1 12,86 Aegean 12.7 13,44 Marmara 30.7 25,74 Southeast 7.9 9,75 East 7.3 8,93 Central 17.5 16,83 Blacksea 11.7 12,48 ''Estimationdefined by the end ofthe year. Urban is asplaces 20.000 and morepopulation Includes villages only Source: SLY, SPO 75  There i s fair match between the sample and the population distributions. Seemingly serious difference between urban and rural distributions stems from the fact that rural inthe sample includes only v illages whereas rural is defined as places with population less than 20000 in SIS statistics. When the households are reclassified according to the SIS criterion, the sample portion o f rural households becomes 18 percent. It should be noted that this exercise o f reclassification carries certain amount o f error stemming from the difference between population figures for 2000 census and 1997 population count. The sample includes 62 provinces. There are 7 provinces inMediterranean, 8 in Aegean, 10 inMarmara, 7 inSoutheast, 8 inEast, 11in Central and 12inBlacksea. Data collection instrument: Data collection instrument was questionnaire. There were seven modules inthe questionnaire each o fwhich probed a different issue. These modules are: A. HouseholdRoster which has two sub modules. B. Characteristics ofhouseholdwhichhas two submodules. C. Consumptionwhich has two sub modules. D. Income and employmentwhich hastwo sub modules. E. Savings F. Access to services which has four sub modules. G. Perceptiono fwealth andincome The questionnaire was pre-testedby the research team in five different provinces and necessary corrections were made before giving it to the contracted company. Detailed nature o f the information sought made the questionnaire longer, administration o f which took, on the average, one and a half hour in the field. A copy o f the questionnaire i s given inAppendix 1. Fieldwork: Fieldwork is contracted to a company, which specializes inlarge scale data collection. Region supervisors o f the company were trained before the fieldwork started. In fact, two training sessions were organized in Ankara. A manual to be used by the interviewers w hich was also used duringtraining o f supervisors w as prepared and givento all interviewers. Interviews took place between 18 July and 25 September, 2001. Face to face technique was used to interview respondents. Responses were recorded by using paper and pencil technique. Initially five teams took part indata collection process. Two more teams were added later to expedite the data collection process. Non-response: The total number o f questionnaires completed in the field was 4307. For 80 percent o f households, someone was found for interview inthe first address and substitutes were used for only 20 percent households. Non-response rate was 76  negligible despite the fact that no incentives provided for the respondents. However, 296 cases were eliminated during data editing and cleaning phase. Most o f the eliminated questionnaires had the problem o f too many missing answers and inconsistent information given by the respondents. After cleaning and editing, 4119 questionnaires remained for the analysis, which i s little over than the initially targeted sample size o f 4000. Limitations o f the data: Household surveys usually fail to pick up individuals who do not have residence, which also create serious measurement problems. However, estimates o f the number o f homeless suggest that this would not make a substantial difference to the results in terms o f the overall distribution although it might somewhat affect measures o f poverty. Despite daily observations that indicate increased number o f the poor, which i s apparent in the number o f street beggars, homeless families and the rampant incidence o f theft, they are under- represented in the sample since they do not have fixed addresses and records to take into account in sample selection. Infact, similar problems are valid for the other end o f the distribution. Richpeople often are hard to find and interview. This studyhadbothlimitations to certain degree, the extent o fwhich is difficult to determine. Moreover, although few in numbers, some difficulty has also been experienced in locating some o f the respondents at the addresses provided by the State Institute o f Statistics. Despite the short time span between the last population count (1997) and the fieldwork (2001), there have been changes in addresses o f some respondents. Some families move out due to construction o f new housing in their neighborhood while somejust changed their residence for various reasons. It is also the case that there were problems with the reporting o f some important variables such as income. In general, there is a certain extend o f under-reporting o f incomes which i s commonly encountered in household surveys. Under-reporting o f capital and property incomes i s often significant. The degree to which this is the case is difficult to judge and likely that it i s concentrated in certain groups. It is observed that some o f the families under the poverty line did not report their consumption correctly which created a false picture o f positive saving for the poor household. Although it i s shown that under-reporting o f household incomes i s small (Burniaux et al. 1998) there i s no study reporting the impact o f under-reporting for consumption on the calculation o f poverty lines. In the light o f this information, household income was used both in determination o fthe poverty lines and measuring inequalities inthis research. 2.2. In-dept Interviews Total o f 122 interviewswere conducted between October 2001 and January 2002 by two experienced interviewers. It took 4 months to complete the in-depth interviews with the poor families. Eight o f the interviews were done with widowed women who were household heads. 77  Selection o f cities as interview sites has been done carefully to reflect the social- economic characteristics o f the country. Attention i s paid to include poorest households who live in various disadvantaged environments such as areas subjected to long lasting terrorism, places where out migration is high, places attract poor people along with seasonal/temporary workers and earthquake-ridden areas. Households from both urban and rural areas are included inthe selection. Inthe lightoftheseconsiderations, thefollowing cities are selectedfor interviews; City No. o fhouseholds Place o f interview Ankara 6 urban Corum 6 rural Kutahya 6 rura1 Siirt 5 rural Malatya 6 urban Adana 6 urban Giresun 5 urban Istanbul 5 urban Mersin 11 urban Bingo1 11 urban U8ak 11 urban Sanliurfa 11 urban Aksaray 11 urban Samsun 11 urban Bursa 11 urban Inthe field, the selection of the households is done with the help of The Prime Ministry's Social Solidarity Foundation(Bagbakanlik Sosyal Yardimlagma ve Dayanigma Vakfi). According to the prevailing procedure, poor families apply to this foundation and their applications are kept infiles. Upon investigation o f the Foundation personnel, some are granted help while some are denied. During the selection o f households, these files were searched to find the most suitable families to interview. In case there were doubts about the household's well-being and validity o f the information provided, muhtars and residents o f the respective communities were resorted for additional information. One o f the interviewers who was female interviewed the wives and probed the issues relating to the management o f house, food and non-food consumptions in the house, healthproblems inthe family, education o f t he children. Inaddition, questions were asked to understand how they have been reacting to economic changes in the last decade and coping strategies they have developed to ease the blows o f the crises. The second interviewer who was male conducted interviews with the husbands andprobedthe issues concerning employment o f the household membersand household income Interview time varied between 60-90 minutes. Wife and husband were interviewedseparately preferably in separate rooms. Ifthe house has only one room, the husband was interviewed outside o f the house. 78  Every household selected responded to interview, which rendered the non- response rate to 0. 3. Poverty Line Multidimensionality o f poverty and various measures and indices developed to capture as many dimensions as possible created a situation where many measures are available to tab the same phenomenon (World Bank 2001; Senses 2001). Moreover, each measure employing a different rationale produces a poverty line which i s different than that o f others. Choosing one or few measures among the existingones becomes a difficult task for the researcher. Even a researcher, who employs all o f the measures ends with many poverty lines which are different from each other. There are mainly two reasons for s electing relative measures over the absolute ones. First, the qualitative research conducted to complement this survey suggested that use o f the absolute poverty i s not possible in case o f Turkey. The household defined as the poorest lost its meaning when even poorer household was found which, was the case repeatedly encountered in the qualitative research. Second, most absolute poverty measures impose an external criterion to be used in the calculation o f the poverty line. We feel that using external criterion in the case o f Turkey will basically reveal how Turkey stands vis a vis that criterion which does not do justice to mirror her structural characteristics. If, for example, Turkish families consume 40 percent o f their income on food on the average, cutoff should be 40, not 50 or 60 percent as suggested and used by some authors. This does not hamper comparative edge o f the research in any way. Just to the contrary, it helps to compare countries by taking their true mean food consumption as the base. Priority in selecting measures i s given to those criterion o f which was obtained from the data as opposed to ones that use external criteria such as 2450 calorie per day for each household member. The criteria used inthe measurement o f the poverty 1ine originated from the data itself. One other difficulty in case o f Turkey is the absence o f studies that use data that reflect the true degree o f poverty in the country. Almost all o f the previous studies on poverty have usedthe 1994 Income and Consumption data collected by the State Institute o f Statistics. It i s crucial to remember that Turkey had the most serious economic crises in 1994 and the 1994 data were collected aftermath o f that crisis. Ironically, the present data were collected right after Turkey experienced two big economic crises inNovember 2000 and February 2001. Neither o f the data can reflect the true nature o f the poverty in the country since both carry the imprints o f economic crises. Besides hiding true nature o f the poverty, the absence o f data collected at times o f no crisis wipes out the possibility o f comparison. In fact, during the analysis o f data, the research team felt helplessness at times, which stemmed from the lack o f solid ground to compare the results o f this study. The selection o f poverty and inequality measures i s also guided by the practical reason which can be stated as to choose ones that were employed in the previous poverty research on Turkey (Akder 1999; Dagdemir 1999; Dansuk 1996; Dumanli 1996; Uygur and Kasnakoglu 1998; Dumanli ve Bulutay 2000; Erdogan 1996, 2000; Ozer 2001; 79  Pamuk 2000; World Bank 2000; Sonmez 2001; DPT 2000) Two studies which seemed to have wider coverage in terms of measurements were taken as reference in particular. These are Erdogan(1996,2000) and Pamuk (2000) 3.1. TheLow IncomeMeasure (LIM) The first relative poverty line measure uses total household income and takes the halfmedian value as the poverty line. This measure will be termed as `The Low Income Measure' (LIM) Likeany other measure, LIMhas pros and cons. LIMis apurely relativepoverty measure which i s used inmany international comparisons. It explicitly defines low income as being much worse off than average, andit i s drawn at one-half the median income o f an equivalent household. Pros o f LIMcan be listed as 0 LIMis simpleto understand andcaptures theimportant inequalitydimensionof low income. 0 LIMfacilitates international comparisons andmakes clear how Turkey is doingin comparisonto other countries. needs - however they are defined - but it does tell us that they are significantly LIMdoesnottell us directly ifthe poor havesufficient income to meettheirbasic distant from the social norm interms o f income available to buy goods and services inthe market economy. Cons o f LIMare 0 Itis conceptually unclear what kindso fregionaldifferences shouldbe allowed for inLIMs. Thus itrequires calculationofmedian for different regions, provinces andthe like. Still, ahousehold identified as poor inone regionmaynot be poor in another region. 0 LIMtells usnothingdirectly about what a low-income householdcanbuy. 0 L I M s do not vary with the business cycle. Poverty using the LIMtends not to increase inrecessions, even though income falls for the working poor. That i s because unemployment reduces median incomes and notjust the incomes o f low- income households. The income unit i s the household, which i s defined as a group o f persons sharing a set o f common resources, not necessarily related by blood or marriage. Household disposable income i s defined as total market income (income from labor and capital), plus income transfers from government, monetary and equivalents o f non monetary assistance from persons and other institutions (from private charity and solidarity institutions and NGOs), less income taxes. Although household income i s self-reported, it i s checked by adding all monetary incomes generated by the family members and equivalents of all non-monetary income received by the household. Incase the latter was bigger than the first, the later was used as the total household income. It should be noted that choice o f income unit, households as opposed to individuals, is important since it 80  affects the level o f income inequality. An increase in the size of income unit lowers the degree of income dispersion. In order to calculate one-half of the median, data were broken down by 7-fold region variable and the half median was calculated for each region. The half median value was taken as the poverty line. Table 2 presents poverty line for regions, urban and rural places (will be called locations interchangeably hereafter) and the country along with other descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, percent of the total income, total income, percent o fthe total households and the number o f households. Table 2 Total HHIncome(1000 TL) by Regions,UrbanRuralPlaces andPoverty Line REGION Descriptive Statistics Total HHincome Poverty line 1 Mediterranean Mean 409267.75 Median 300000.00 150000 Std. Deviation 494594.43 YOof Total Sum 13.4% Sum 201769000 % of Total N 12.4% N 493 2 Aegean Mean 320886.60 Median 250000.00 125000 Std. Deviation 278686.36 % of Total Sum 10.9% Sum 163973054 YOof Total N 12.8% N 511 3 Marmara Mean 458130.10 Median 350000.00 175000 Std. Deviation 503599.23 % ofTotal Sum 36.7% Sum 554337418 % ofTotal N 30.4% N 1210 4 South-East Mean 240989.90 Median 200000.00 100000 Std. Deviation 135156.45 YOof Total Sum 4.7% Sum 71574000 % of Total N 7.5% N 297 5 East Mean 320003.50 Median 250000.00 125000 Std. Deviation 337877.63 % of Total Sum 6.1% Sum 91521000 % of Total N 7.2% N 286 81  6 Central Mean 378682.70 Median 300000.00 150000 Std. Deviation 293431.89 % ofTotal Sum 17.9% Sum 270000764 % of Total N 17.9% N 713 7 Blacksea Mean 331908.90 Median 300000.00 150000 Std. Deviation 204401.02 % of Total Sum 10.4% Sum 156661000 % ofTotalN 11.9% N 472 Urban Mean 397905.15 Median 300000.00 150000 Std. Deviation 407847.81 YOof Total Sum 87.2% Sum 1316270236 YOof Total N 83.1% N 3308 Rural Mean 287189.91 Median 200000.00 100000 Std. Deviation 261472.29 % of Total Sum 12.8% Sum 193566000 YOof TotalN 16.9% N 674 Turkey Mean 379165.30 Median 300000.00 150000 Std. Deviation 389178.13 YOof Total Sum 100.0% Sum 1509836236 % of Total N 100.0% N 3982 Ifthe regions arecompared interms ofmeanincome, Marmararanks first which i s followed by Mediterranean, Central, Blacksea, East, Aegean and Southeast. Despite considerable differences inthe mean incomes, there i s less variation intheir medians. 82  500000 1 400000 300000 200000 MEAN 100000 MEDlAN REGION Figure1: Mean andMedianIncomeby Region Taking the halfmedian value as the cutoffpoint, households were grouped into 5 categories as 1. households that hadincome less than halfo fthe medianincome 2. householdthat had income more than the half-median but less than the median 3. households that had income betweenthe median (average income)and twice medianincome 4. households that had income between twice and three times the median income 5. households that had income more than three times the medianincome. Table 3 providesjoint distribution o f respondents below and above the poverty line within each region. The percentages inthe first column are the poverty rates, also called head count index expressed inpercentages, for corresponding locations. Table3 Percentof HHBelow the PovertyLineBy RegionandLocation Total Region 1.oo Total HHincome* 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.OO 1 Mediterranean 115 164 140 49 25 493 23.3% 33.3% 28.4% 9.9% 5.1% 100.0% 2 Aegean 146 193 140 19 11 509 28.7% 37.9% 27.5% 3.7% 2.2% 100.0% 3 Marmara 164 385 471 118 64 1202 83  13.6% 32.0% 39.2% 9.8% 100.0% 4 South-East 102 136 53 3 -5.3% 294 34.7% 46.3% 18.0% 1.O% - 100.0% 5 East 70 111 89 12 3 285 24.6% 38.9% 31.2% 4.2% 1.1% 100.0% 6 Central 156 238 218 68 30 710 22.0% 33.5% 30.7% 9.6% 4.2% 100.0% 7 Blacksea 98 182 155 27 7 469 20.9% 38.8% 33.0% 5.8% 1.5% 100.0% Location Urban 626 1139 1131 267 129 3292 19.0% 34.6% 34.4% 8.1% 3.9% 100.0% Rural 225 270 135 29 11 670 33.6% 40.3% 20.1% 4.3% 1.6% 100.0% Turkey 851 1409 1266 296 140 3962 * 21.5% 35.6 32.0 7.5 3.5 100.0 1 Below thepoverty line 2 Between thepoverw line and the median. 3 Between the median and two medians 4 Between the two medians and the three medians 5 More than the three medians Southeast i s the region with the highest concentration o f poor people whereas Marmara has the least. Interestingly enough, East seems to have less number o f poor people than Aegean which may be related to the fact that the large portion o fpoor people who do not have anything at home have been migrating to Southeast region and Western cities and notably to Imir along with other cities in the Aegean region. It seems that poverty has also migrated with the poor migrants. When people who have incomes above the poverty line but less than the region average are added to those under the poverty line, Southeast ranks first with 81 percent which i s followed by Aegean (66.6 %), East (63.5 %), Blacksea (59.7 %), Mediterranean (56.6 %), Central (55.5 %) and Marmara (45.7 %). On both accounts, Marmara seems better off than all the other regions despite two devastating earthquakes lived in the region. Figure 2 pictures number o f households under (group 1 and 2 combined) and above the medianby region. 84  600 500 400 300 0 % 200 f0 100 =Under the median 0 20 0 Above the median Region Figure2 NumberofHouseholdsUnder andAbove the Medianby Region As for urban rural differences inpoverty, urbanplaces seem to have less poverty than rural places (19 % vs 33.6 %, respectively). 3.2 Food Ratio Measure Engel claims that the poor households spend larger portion o f their incomes on food. In Turkey, households spend on the average 40.4 percent o f their income on food which makes up 36.4 percent o ftheir total consumption. The ratio o f food expendituresto total income was formed and 40 percent cutoff point was used as the poverty line. Of course, one can perform the same analysis by forming ratio o f food consumption to total household consumption. In order to allow detailed analysis, percent o f food in the total household income was calculated and recoded the following way: 1. Lessthan40 percent o ftotal monthlyincome spent on food 2. 41 - 60 percent o ftotal monthlyincome spent on food 3. 61 - 80 percent o f total monthly income spent on food 4. 81 - 100 percent o f total monthly income spent on food. Here, respondents who were in the second through fourth categories are defined as poor. For the detailed analysis where gradations among poor i s needed, the second group can be termedpoor, the thirdpoorer and the fourth the poorest. The following procedure was used in the estimation o f poverty lines for household o f different size (For a similar analysis for 1994 SIS data refer to Erdogan 1996). Ifthe food expenditure i s denoted with c and total household income yt, the food ratio can be formed as 85  Ifthemaximumfoodratio isdenotedwithcpo (which is 40percent inthis case) When c / yt > cpo household i s poor and when c / yt < cpo household is not poor. It i s assumed that yt# 0. The relationship between food consumption and the household income is captured by the Engelfunction (Orshansky 1965, 1969) which canbewritten as Similarly, for the poverty line, one can write, Incpo =In(c / yt) =Inc -Inyt replace Inc with (1) =( a0 +a1 Inyt)-Inyt (2) Leaving the yt alone in (2) poverty line (yp) can be obtained. Inyp=(Incpo - ao)/ (a1- 1) (3) Foodratio i s also the function o fthe family size. Assumingthat food consumption has log linear distribution with the household size, then Inc (yt,hhs) = a0 + 011Inhhs ) +a2 Inyt (4) By estimating (4) parameters = a0 ,a1 anda2 are obtained. Here, assuming that yt# 0, If[c(yt,hhs)/yt]>cp,thehouseholdispoor,and If[c(yt,hhs)/yt]<cp,thehouseholdisnotpoor. Poverty line for cp is obtained by, Incp =In[ c (yt, hhs) /yt 3In =Inc (yt,hhs) - yt Replacing Inc inthe above equation, =a0 a1 Inhhs a2 In Inyt = a0 a1 Inhhs ++ ++ (a2 yt1)-In - yt (5) Leavingthe yt alone, ypi s obtained. Inyp =(a0+a1 Inhhs - Incp) / (1 - a2) (6) This equation gives the poverty line regarding the food ratio which is 40 percent inthis case. One can calculate the household size elasticity o f income by 86  The following regression equations were estimated for food consumption. All coefficients are significant at .05. Turkey: Inc =7.162 + .392 Inhhs + .296 Inyt R2,dj = .226 Urban: Inc =6.857 + .356 Inhhs + .322 Inyt R2,dj = .225 Rural: Inc =8.146 + .485 Inhhs + .209 Inyt R2,dj = .257 Mediterranean: Inc =6.861 + .401 Inhhs + .312 Inyt R2adj = .209 Aegean: Inc =6.785 + .483 In + .314 In h h s yt R2,dj = .275 Marmara: Inc =7.626 + .402 Inhhs + .262 In yt R2,dj = .242 Southeast: Inc =5.033 + .497 Inhhs + .450 Inyt R2,dj = .283 East: Inc =9.453 + .516 Inhhs + .08296 In yt R2adj = .lo8 Central: Inc =6.714 + .287 Inhhs + .343 In yt R2adj = .229 Blacksea: Inc = 8.455 + SO8 Inhhs + .191 Inyt R2,dj = .293 ByusingEquation(6) poverty lines are calculated for Turkey, urban and ruralplaces and regions by household size andpresentedinTable 4. 87  13 496258 - 613072 100.00 386731 - 398180 612102 - 14 516701 - 655534 100.00 403199 100.00 411281 -0.00 641260 - HH elasticity 0.54 0.90 0.56 0.44 0.63 Table 5 presents poverty lines for a day which varies from the lowest 907 000 TL for a household o f 14 inurban places to 4 329 000 TL for a family o f 1inthe Central region. Table 5 Poverty Lines by the Household Size, Daily (1000 TL) H H s i z e Turkey Urban Rural Med. Aegean Marmara SE East Central Blacksea 1 3209 3177 3151 3153 2918 4091 2013 3044 4329 4076 2 2360 2286 2410 2361 2377 2984 1883 2248 2930 3149 3 1972 1886 2060 1994 2108 2481 1811 1883 2332 2708 4 1736 1645 1843 1768 1936 2176 1761 1660 1983 2433 5 1572 1480 1691 1611 1813 1966 1724 1506 1749 2240 6 1450 1357 1576 1493 1717 1809 1694 1391 1578 2093 7 1355 1261 1484 1400 1641 1687 1669 1300 1447 1976 8 1277 1184 1410 1324 1577 1587 1647 1226 1342 1880 9 1212 119 1347 1261 523 1504 629 1165 1256 1800 10 1157 065 1293 1207 476 1434 612 1112 1184 1730 11 1109 017 1246 1160 435 1373 597 1067 1122 1670 12 1067 976 1205 1118 399 1320 584 1027 1068 1617 13 1030 940 1168 1082 366 1272 572 992 1021 1569 14 996 907 1135 1049 337 1230 561 960 979 1527 To allow international comparison, the daily poverty lines in Table 5 are converted into U S dollars. Daily poverty lines in dollars vary from the lowest 62 cents for the largest household inurbanareas to 2.94 dollars for a one-person household inthe Central region. 88  Table 6 USD Equivalentof Poverty Line, Daily (1USD=1472546 on 23 August 2001) HHsize Turkey Urban Rural Med. Aegean Marmara SE East Central Blacksea 1 2.18 2.16 2.14 2.14 1.98 2.78 1.37 2.07 2.94 2.77 2 1.60 1.55 1.64 1.60 1.61 2.03 1.28 1.53 1.99 2.14 3 1.34 1.28 1.40 1.35 1.43 1.68 1.23 1.28 1.58 1.84 4 1.18 1.12 1.25 1.20 1.31 1.48 1.20 1.13 1.35 1.65 5 1.07 1.00 1.15 1.09 1.23 1.34 1.17 1.02 1.19 1.52 6 0.98 0.92 1.07 1.01 1.17 1.23 1.15 0.94 1.07 1.42 7 0.92 0.86 1.01 0.95 1.11 1.15 1.13 0.88 0.98 1.34 8 0.87 0.80 0.96 0.90 1.07 1.08 1.12 0.83 0.91 1.28 9 0.82 0.76 0.91 0.86 1.03 1.02 1.11 0.79 0.85 1.22 10 0.79 0.72 0.88 0.82 1.oo 0.97 1.09 0.76 0.80 1.18 11 0.75 0.69 0.85 0.79 0.97 0.93 1.08 0.72 0.76 1.13 12 0.72 0.66 0.82 0.76 0.95 0.90 1.08 0.70 0.73 1.10 13 0.70 0.64 0.79 0.73 0.93 0.86 1.07 0.67 0.69 1.07 14 0.68 0.62 0.77 0.71 0.91 0.84 1.06 0.65 0.66 1.04 The average size o f the households is 4 (3.9) inTurkey. Taking this number as a base for comparisons, the following figure presents the poverty line for the country, urban and rural places and regions intwo different years. For the purpose o f comparison, 2001 values were deflated by the consumer price index (CPI) based 1994 = 100. It appears that in 2001, Blacksea region has the highest while urban places have the lowest poverty line. In 1994, Southeast region had the lowest while Marmara had the highest poverty line. *Oo01 r"a, I R94 R2001 LOCATION Figure 3. Poverty Line for a Household of Four by Locationin 1994l and 2001 1994data were borrowedfrom Erdogan (1996) 89  Limitingthe analysis for regions only which is given inFigure 4, one can observe some important points. Compared to seven years ago, the poverty threshold decreased in Turkey meaning that the poor in2001 live on smaller income than the poor of 1994. The second observation i s that vast differences among regions tended to disappear inthe last seven years which means that inequality seems to have lessened between regions. With regard to poverty line, Blacksea and Southeast regions remained almost the same in the last seven years whereas Marmara experienced considerable poverty which i s followed by Mediterraneanregion, rural areas and Turkey ingeneral. R2001 Region Figure 4 Comparison of Poverty Line for Regions in 1994 and 2001 ByusingEquation 7,the householdsize elasticity o fincome is also calculated for each location and presented in Table 4 (last row). Elasticity indicates the amount o f change in the poverty line ifthe household size increases one unit. It appears that Central Region with the lowest elasticity (.44) i s less sensitive to such changes whereas the Southeast region which has the highest elasticity (.90) seems to be the most sensitive. Aegean has also high elasticity (.70). Comparison between urban and rural places indicates that rural places have a higher elasticity which i s different than the one calculated by Erdogan (1996, p.43) which i s due to the different rural definitions employed inboth studies. 4. Inequalities It is unfortunate that the relationship between poverty and inequalities have not given due consideration inthe poverty literature although both concepts were entertained on its own right. For most cases, indicating the division o f income among population groups and its measurement have been thought as sufficient evidence to highlight inequalities in a society. This approach i s legitimate as long as the focus i s inter-group 90  (between group) comparison o f income shares o f respective population groups. Probably what is equally important is t o look at the income inequalitiesw ithine ach population group. The first 20 percent o f the population may receive very small fraction o f the total income as i s the case in Turkey but it is possible that people in the first group receive quite different incomes from each other. Aggregating population and income inquantiles, deciles or percentiles hides such inequalities. By this way, which has been the traditional approach to inequality, it becomes quite difficult to investigate the depth o f poverty which is as important as its extend (Sen 1992). In the analysis that follows both inter-group inequalities and intra-group inequalities will be investigated. In line with the traditional approach to inter-group inequalities, information about income share o f different population groups will be presented. Table 7 gives income shares o f equally divided five population groups. 4.I Inequalities Between Various Population Groups It is not surprisingto see the extremely unequal income distribution inthe country which has not changed since the first income distribution conducted in 1963. Despite different methodologies employed, all income distribution studies have pointed out similar inequalities for Turkey, which i s summarized in Table 7. Declining trend in inequalities between 1968 and 1987 reversed afier 1987. For the year 2001, the data reveals that the poorest 20 percent o f the population receives 6.0 percent o f the total income generated in the country while the richest 19 percent receives 43.8 percent. It seems that in the last seven years, the share o f the first three groups have increased somewhat which indicates an improvement in inequalities. However, the share o f the fourth group also increased which has an adverse effect on inequalities. The richest 20 percent experienced the highest decline inits sharewhich also indicates an improvement inincome inequalities. Table 7 IncomeDistribution by Quantiles, 1963-1994 (YO) Source: Dansuk 1996,p.38. DPT: State Planning Organization (SPO), AUSBF: Ankara University Political Science Faculty, TUSIAD: TurkishIndustrialists ' and Businessmen'sAssociation, DIE: State Institute ofstatistics (SIS) In2001, ahouseholdintherichest 19percentmakes 856millionTL/month onthe average, which i s 7.5 times more than the monthly income o f the household in the poorest 22 percent. 91  The inequalities seem even gloomier when the analysis i s performed on smaller population groups such as 5 percent (Table 9) and 1 percent (Table 10). It i s suffice to note that the poorest 5 percent o f the population receives 0.66 percent o f the total income while the richest 5 percent gets 19.19 percent o f the total income. When compared with the corresponding percentages for 1994, some improvement i s observed in the income share o f the second group through sixth group. Households in the gth, 1lthand 12thalso increased their share in the total income generated in the country. Increasing income share i s also true for 14th through 16thgroups along with 1gth and 19thgroups. Since the latter groups include the well- off and richest families in the country, there i s also some degree o f deterioration in the income distribution between 1994 and 2001. The average monthly household income in the richest 5 percent i s 1.4 billionTL, which i s 23.4 times more than that o f the household inthe poorest 5 percent. Table 9 IncomeDistributionbv 5 Percentof PoDulation.2001 Mean Income 7.5% I 213.690 1 2.18 I 185910001 1.23 I 2.26 I 8. 5% 233,404 94 2.36 21940000 1.45 2.49 9. 5% 253,832 292 7.33 74119000 4.91 2.74 10. 5% I 283.353 I 53 I 1.33 1 15017712I 0.99 I 2.99 1 11.5% 300,752 339 8.5 1 101955000 6.75 3.28 12.5% 343,078 256 6.43 87828000 5.82 3.59 13.5% I 374.379 I 87 I 2.18 I 32571000 I 2.16 I 3.97 I 14.5% 404,O 13 259 6.50 104639422 6.93 4.43 15.5% 457,337 167 4.19 76375342 5.06 4.97 16.5% I 500.000 I 253 I 6.35 1 126500000I 8.38 I 5.65 1 17.5% 546,185 138 3.47 75373477 4.99 6.53 18.5% 613,009 212 5.32 129958000 8.61 7.84 19.5% I 751.244 1 221 I 5.55 I 1660250001 11.00 I 10.17I 20.5% 1,441,355 201 5.05 289712283 19.19 30.34 Total 379165 3982 100.00 1509837236 100.00 100.00 Source: DPT2001,p.17 92  Similarly, dividing population into 100 population groups (first 5 and the last 5 groups are given), it i s seen that the poorest 1 percent receives 0.06 percent o f the total income while the richest 1percent gets 7.74 percent o f the total income. Householdinthe richest one percent makes on the average 106 times higher monthly income than a household inthe poorest 1percent. No matter how it is aggregated, there i s very skewed distribution o f income in Turkey which has been the case at least in the last 30 years. Although differences in the measurement o f the household income and inequalities do not permit sound comparisons between the studies, all equivocally point out the bold reality o f skewed income distribution inTurkey. 4.2 Inequalities within various groups Traditionally inequality measures are calculated to compare various groups of interest (Deaton 1997). For the most cases, these are calculated to compare regions and urban and rural places in the studies done on Turkey. In addition to these traditional calculations, this study aims at looking inequalities within poverty groups, which i s sensible in sociological sense. Table 10 presents Gini coefficient for 5 poverty groups, Turkey, urban andruralplaces and regions. 93  Table 11Gini Coefficientsfor Poverty Groups,Locationsand Regions A. Poverty Groups Gini coef. Below novertv line 1I.23 Southeast .36 East .39 Central .39 Blacksea .34 Higher Gini coefficients for the poorest and the richest group indicate the wider inequalities within the two extreme groups where the lower limit for the poorest households and the upper limit for the richest households are open. In fact, highest inequalities exist in the richest group where some households make the highest incomes inTurkey. The second highest inequality belongs to the poorest income group. Although households classified as poor make up the poor category, there remain considerable income differences among them. The second highest Gini coefficient lends support for the relative poverty approach that claims that there are always poorer households than what i s classified as the poorest. This is very much in line with the conclusions o f the qualitative study, which discredited the applicationo f the absolute poverty inTurkey. Inequalities in urban and rural places are similar with little more inequality for rural places. There i s almost same amount o f inequality in rural areas as in Turkey in general. As for regions, Mediterranean leads other regions in terms o f amount o f inequality followed by Marmara region. Blacksea i s the region with the least amount o f inequalities. 94  I Region AUSBF DPT DIE DIE 1968 1973 1987 1994 House Incom Gini House Income Gin House Incom Gini House Incom Gini hold e hold i hold e hold e Aegean- 30,7 39,3 .54 33,7 37,7 .47 37,O 45,O .43 42,3 52,5 Marmara Mediterranea 15,3 11,4 .53 15,2 13,2 .55 13,4 10,7 .42 12,5 11,O Parallel to overall inequalities observed among population groups, regions have been exhibiting considerable inequalities since 1968. The following table which i s compiled by the information borrowed from Dansuk (1996) provides percentages o f households and income along with Gini coefficients for each region. In 1968, inequality was lowest in Mediterranean and highest in Blacksea region and in the country as well. Five years later, the overall inequality reduced inthe country where income was divided more equally in Aegean-Marmara and more unequally in Blacksea. In the following 15 years, there was again improvement in the amount o f inequalities in the country. Blacksea region which continuously lost population had the most equal income distribution in 1987 while East-Southeast had the most skewed. Despite changes in the relative ranking o f the regions interms o f amount o f inequalities since 1968, considerable inequalities remain among the regions. Two poverty measures, Poverty Gap Index (PGI) and Foster-Greer-Thornbecle Measure (P2) can be used to see the degree of inequalities in various groups. Both measures are actually employed to tap the degree o f poverty since both indicate the distance between the poverty line and income o f the poor in a slightly different manner. Moreover, both measures employ income o f individuals. Since the unit o f income i s household inthis study, they can easily be adopted for households by replacing income o f individual by household income. PGI and P2 are calculated respectivelyby PGI= l/nC [(pl- yi ) / pl] and ~2 = l/n [(PI - yi / p112 wherepl =household poverty line, yi =household income o fpoor, n=number o fpoor households. Inbothformula, distance betweenthe householdincome andthe household poverty line i s expressed interms o f householdpoverty line. The first one can be interpreted as the depth o fthe inequality whereas the second one as the intensityo f inequality (Ravallion 1996, Pamuk 2000) 95  Table 13 Depth and Intensity of Inequality, YO Head Poverty Foster- Count Gap Greer- Index Index Thornbecle (HCI) (PGI) Measure Location (P2 1 Mediterranean 23.3 4.09 1.65 Aegean 28.7 2.73 1.18 Marmara 13.6 7.43 3.02 Southeast 34.7 0.66 0.23 East 24.6 1.84 0.75 Central 22.0 5.79 2.80 Blacksea 20.9 3.91 2.15 Urban 19.0 19.50 8.22 Rural 33.6 6.96 3.55 Turkey 21.5 26.46 11.78 From head count index one can infer that poverty risk i s the highest in the Southeast region (34.7), which i s followed by rural areas, Aegean and East region while it is lowest inMarmara, urbanplaces and Blacksea region. However, as the PGI column indicates, the poverty gap i s widest in the country as a whole followed by urban areas, Marmara region and rural areas. It seems that regions or locations where the poor are less innumber such as Marmara region andurbanplaces, the difference ofthe poor from the poverty line i s wide, that i s more unequal. Again, those regions or locations, that house less number o f poor, that i s more developed regions, have inequality which i s more intense than those regions or 1ocations w ithhigher number o f poor. Thus, having 1ess number o f poor households is not a guarantee for less inequality, which means more heterogeneous group o f poor living under the poverty line. This can be explained by the attraction o f richer regions that offer opportunities, particularly employment, for poor people who migrate t o better o ff regions t o benefit from these opportunities. Figure 5 indicates the relationship among poverty risk, depth and intensity o f inequality. Similar approach which i s applied to total household income where the one half o f the median income (LIM)was used as the poverty line can be legitimately applied for the food consumption ratio approach where the poverty line is determined as the food consumption more than the 40 percent o f the total household income. The following table gives the degree o f inequalities in food consumption (Gini coefficients) for poverty groups determinedby the low income measure (LIM)and for poverty groups determined by the food consumptionratio along with regions and locations. 96  40 30 20 I - 10 C m a) 2 0 REGION Figure5 Relationsof HeadCountIndex(HCI), PovertyGap Index(PG1) and Foster-Greer-ThornbecleMeasure (P2) A. Poverty groups by household income criteria Gini coefficient Below poverty line .35 Between the poverty line and the median .29 B t w the median and two medians .26 Btw two and three medians .24 Above three medians .21 1 B. Povertv wouos bv food consumotion criteria I I Less than 40 % on food .21 41-60 % on food .26 61-80 % on food .21 81-100 % o n food .35 C. Regions Med. .32 Aegean .35 Marmara .28 Southeast .36 East .35 Central .29 Blacksea .21 Urban .30 97  As the panel A o f the table indicates, inequalities among the poor i s highest which i s followed by households with income more than the poverty line but less than the average (median). Third highest Gini coefficient belongs to richest households which ranked second regarding income inequalities. Once again a group defined as poor by low income criteria contains sizable inequalities in their food consumption. This i s rather expected since the money they can spend on food i s proportionate to their income. Panel B shows that inequalities in food consumption i s highest among the poorest households. Although all households in the last category spend more than 80 percent o f their total household income on food, there are still considerable differences intheir food consumption. Lending support to relative poverty, this finding has also serious implications for policy makers who design policies to alleviate poverty. The targeted poor i s not a homogeneous group one would normally think, just to the contrary, it i s a group where there are considerable differences with respect to household income and food consumption. As for regions, which may have different pattems o f food consumption, inequality i s highest in Southeast and Aegean regions both o f which have relatively high number o f poor households. Complementarily, inequalities in food consumption are lower in Blacksea, Marmara and Central regions where the number o f the poor households is also relatively less compared to other regions. Rural places have higher inequalities in food consumption than urban places, which i s inline with the fact that rural places have higher number o f the poor households. It seems that higher concentration o f poverty also bring higher inequalities in food consumption. Conclusion Turkey has been notorious with high income inequalities since the first income distribution study conducted in 1963. Since then, not much has changed regarding income distribution. The country, however, has managed to develop to some degree making the cake bigger but failed to change the way the cake i s sliced. The present study proved once more that the income distribution i s still very skewed. Moreover, there i s indication that prevailing inequalities have a tendency to get stronger which indicates overall poverty for the majority o f the Turkishhouseholds. The results o f this study should be interpreted carefully since the data were collectedjust after Turkey has experienced two big earthquakes and two economic crises. The data collected in 1994 by State Institute o f Statistics were also collected during the time o f crises. So, important datasets for income distribution and poverty studies collected recently cannot reflect the true picture o f the country. It i s also important to note that rural in this study i s defined places delineated as village. Some o f the results pertaining to rural-urban separation would be different from the earlier studies which use the SIS definitions. Keeping these important reservations in mind, some important tendencies can be highlighted with respect to poverty and income distribution inTurkey. 98  Contrary to the expectation, some improvement i s observed in the income o f the poorer groups since 1994 causing more equal income distribution. It seems that the recent crises lived at the end o f 2000 and at the beginning o f 2001 affected the richer sections o f the society more than the middle and poor sections. In real terms, the Turkish economy became smaller experiencing the worst negative growth in the republican era. Duringthe two economic crises, the share o f the poorest 20 percent inthe GNP increased relative to the share o f richer groups. Despite these improvements, considerable income inequalities remain inthe income distribution. Due to the decreasing income inequalities in general, differences among regions seem to have lessened. Relatively sharper differences among regions in 1994 tended to decrease making the regions look alike. One o f t he interestingfindings o f this study is t o highlight intra-group income inequalities for groups formed by using the poverty line. In1ine with expectation, the richest group had the highest inequality. However, what i s surprising is the existence o f the second highest inequality in the poorest group. This goes against the general belief that all poor are similar. Contrary to expectation, they do not make up a homogeneous group. The analysis indicated that the income inequality among rural dwellers are slightly higher (one point on Ginicoefficient) than the inequality among urban dwellers. Among the regions, the highest income inequality i s found in Mediterranean and Marmara followed by Aegean, all o f which are relatively more developed than the others. In fact, there is as much inequality in East and Central regions as Aegean. Lowest inequality prevails inBlackseaand Southeast regions. Inequalities are also calculated for household consumption. Calculations are performed for groups formed by using income criterion and consumption criterion separately. For the groups formed by income criterion, the highest consumption inequality is observed among the poorest group which confirms the claim that there is considerable variation in the food consumption o f the poor which i s a similar phenomenon observed for income inequalities. Lowest inequalities inc onsumption are found among relatively well-off groups in which food consumption i s not only similar but also less compared to poorer groups. For the groups formed by food consumption criterion, the highest consumption inequality exists in the poorest group which spends more than 80 percent o f their household income on food. The other groups which spend less than 60 percent o f their household income on food, accommodate less inequalities. As for regions with respect to consumption inequalities, Southeast, East, Aegean and Mediterraneanhave higher inequalities than Marmara, Central and Blacksea regions. Rural dwellers have higher consumption inequalities than the urban dwellers. 99  To conclude, calculation o f poverty line i s important for policy makers. The manner inwhich poverty i s conceptualized and measured has two significant implications for policies aiming to reduce poverty. First, the conceptualization and measurement o f poverty will determine the number o f Turkish people who are identified as living in poverty. Second it has also implications for the types, characteristics, and success o f policies to reduce poverty and its negative effects on various aspects o f life. Presently, Social Solidarity Fund targets 6 percent o f the poorest families in Turkey. This study indicated that there are more people than targeted by the state. 100  References Akder, H.(1999) Dimensions o fRural Poverty inTurkey, Turkey Economic Reforms, Living Standards and Social Welfare Study, Vol. 11,World Bank. 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(1996), Tiirkiye'de Yoksullugun Olqiilmesi ve Sosyo-ekonomik Yapilarla Iligkisi, UzmanlikTezi, DPT, Ankara. Deaton, A. (1997) The Analysis o f Household Surveys, Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press. Devlet Planlama Tegkilati. (2000) UzunVadeli Strateji ve Sekizinci Beg Yillik Kalkinma Plani 2001-2005, Sekizinci Boliim, Ankara. Dumanli, R. (1996) Yoksulluk ve Tiirkiye'deki Boyutlari, DPT Uzmanlik Tezi, Ankara. Dumanli, R. ve Bulutay, T. (2000) Tiirkiye'de Yoksulluk ve Azorgiitlii Kesim. Enformel Kesim(11), Ankara: DIEMatbaasi. Erdogan, G. (1996) Tiirkiye'de Bolge Ayriminda Yoksulluk Siniri Uzerine Bir Caligma, DIEUzmanlik Tezi, Ankara. 101  Erdogan, G. (2000) "Turkiye'de ve Dunyada Yoksulluk Olqiimleri Uzerine Degerlendirmeler" inDIE, IggucuPiyasalari Analizleri 1999 (l), Devlet Ankara: Istatistik EnstitusuMatbaasi. Eurostat, (2000), European Social Statistics: Income, Poverty and Social Exclusion, EC/Eurostat Forster, M. (1994) "Measurement of Low Income and Poverty in a Perspective: International Comparisons", Paris: OECD Gordon, D.et al, (2000) Poverty and Social Exclusion in Britain, York: JosephRowntree Foundation. MeasuringPoverty inCanada, 2001, http://www.ccsd.ca. OECD Employment Outlook, June 2001 Orshansky, M.,(1965a) "Counting the Poor: another look at the poverty profile", Social Security Bulletin, 28 (June):3-29. Orshansky, M., (1965b), "Who i s Who Among the Poor: A Demographic View of Poverty", Social Security Bulletin, 28 (July):3-32. Orshansky, M.(1969), How poverty i s measured,Monthly Labor Review 92,37-41. Ozer, H.(2001) Tiirkiye'de Hanehalki TuketimHarcamalarinin Dogrusal Harcama Sistemi Yaklagimiyla Analizi, Ankara: DIEMatbaasi. Pamuk, M.(2000) "Kirsal Yerlerde Yoksulluk" inDIE, IggucuPiyasalan Analizleri 1999 (l), DevletIstatistikEnstitusuMatbaasi. Ankara: Ravallion, M.(1996) "Issues inMeasuring andModelingPoverty", World Bank, Country Economics Department. Saunders, P. (1998), "Towards a better poverty measure" inFocus Vol 19, no 2 Sen, A. (1983) Poor relatively speaking, Oxford Economic Papers 35, 1983, 153-169 Sen, A. (1992), Inequality Re-examined, Cambridge, Mass, Harvard UniversityPress. Sonmez, M.(2001) Gelir Ugurumu: Tiirkiye'de GelirinAdaletsiz Bolugumii, Istanbul: Om Yayinevi. Senses, F. (2001) Kuresellegmenin Oteki Yuzii:Yoksulluk, Istanbul:IletigimYayinlari 102  Uygur, S. and Kasnakoglu, Z. (1998), Estimationo f Poverty Line: Turkey 1994, Ankara, SIS. World Bank. (2000) Turkey: Economic Reforms, Living Standards andSocial Welfare Study, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit,Europe andCentral Asia Region. World Bank. (2001) World DevelopmentReport 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty, New York: Oxford UniversityPress. 103  5. The Benefit Dependent and the Regular Income Earning Poor: The Analysis of the Interview Data (Sencer Ayata and Ayye Guney Ayata) This section examines poverty in Turkey on the basis o f qualitative data that comes from one hundredand twenty-two in-debt interviews conducted in fifteen different provinces. In three provinces the interviews were done only with rural families whereas in the other twelve urban families were interviewed. The provinces involved are distributedevenly among the major regions inTurkey. Eight o f the interviews were done with widowed women who were household heads. For the rest, both men and women, that is, the household head and his spouse were interviewed separately in fifty-seven different households. In order to cross check the information obtained from one o f the respondents in the family, men and women were interviewed in separate rooms in the same house and in different places in the case o f those who lived in single room dwellings. Inthis part ofthe analysis the fundamental aim is to look more closely at various aspects o f and specific processes associated with poverty. For this purpose a major distinction i s made between two grades o f poor. The first involves the unemployed and casually employed poor who despite having some family income heavily depend on benefits they receive from others whether the source would be informal networks of solidarity or government social welfare spending. Typically, the extremely poor would include the sick and the disabled, the unemployed, female-headed households and the unskilleduneducated casual laborers. The second category consists o f those families who on average have higher incomes but more significantly have at least one member regularly employed albeit on the minimum wage or an amount only slightly higher than this. The difference between the benefit dependent poor and others who earn low but regular income i s both a matter o f degree as well as kind. For instance, they are far less dependent on benefits. Also, those families categorized as the regular income earning poor generally have social security as they are covered by one o f the major insurance schemes in Turkey. Thus, in this section we compare the cases o f the benefit dependent and the regular income earning poor in providing basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter as well as in terms o f their expenditure on consumption durables, utilities, health and education. Inthe last part, the impact o f social networks on poverty and mechanisms o f s ocial inclusion onthe one hand, and the specific nature o f s ocial exclusion inthe Turkishcontext onthe other are examined. In order to highlight various dimensions of poverty the survey data and the interview data are analyzed quite separately. Inother words, the major distinctions made among the population in the case o f the survey data i s not followed in exactly the same terms in the qualitative analysis. Therefore, although the main findings and arguments in the three sections are largely parallel and complementary, hence involving repetitions too, there are also differences as well as few divergences. This can be explained in part by the existence o fvarious subjects and areas deeply scrutinized inthe interview data that are not covered inthe survey. Also, the differences stem from the fact that the qualitative 104  material unlike the survey data does not represent a proper sample o f the population. However, it needs to be emphasized that the category labeled as the benefit dependent poor inthe qualitative analysis are exclusively those below the poverty line inthe survey data. Although exact estimations are difficult to make the most desperate poor who would be the immediate target o f social policy, constitute a ratio that i s between the bottom five percent and ten percent o f the respondents covered in the survey. A proportion o f those included inthe second category, that i s the regular income earning poor can also be seen among those below the poverty line while the rest would be those between the median income and the poverty 1ine. Tentatively, it can be argued that the qualitative analysis focuses mainly on the bottom one fifth or one quarter o f the population. Who are the BenefitDependentPoor? The most salient aspect o f poverty is employment in casual trades and the strongest economic correlate o f poverty, specifically o f benefit dependence, i s unemployment and casual work (Dansuk, 1996, DPT, 2001). Almost all men and women classified as benefit dependent poor are either unemployed or they are casual laborers. As it can be followed from past work experience, the casual workers change jobs frequently shifting from one employer to another even during very short periods o f time. Thus, many report having worked for tens or even hundreds o f employers and being engaged in numerous trades in the past. During the frequent periods o f unemployment between changing employers andjobs the casual worker himself and often the whole family who depends on him lose an income. The casual poor typically wait for days in the coffee houses, bus stops or other identified spots to be picked by an employer on a daily basis. Even in the case o f working for the seasonal trades such as the garment, brick making and construction industries that offer the highest pay, jobs are often temporary and workers are arbitrarily laid off. As the latest wave o f migrants to the cities the majority o f the extremely poor have a background infarming, agricultural w age w ork and animal husbandry. When they were still in the village as well as after coming to the city almost all casual laborers have worked for the building industry though many were not able to develop new skills there. Factory work however appears much less common as it was generally limited to the labor-intensive industries. Only four household heads in Istanbul have mentioned that they worked in the garment industry at one time in the past. In addition, the casual workers have almost all attempted doing various street occupations working as shoe-shiners, porters, food sellers etc. Finally, those most desperate for income work as garbage pickers (bottle collectors, scrap metal collectors, and paper sorting) and they wash dishes in the coffee houses and worst o f all as sewer men. Incomes varied significantly in such casual trades; shoe-shining and garbage picking brings only one or two, street selling two and three, and working inthe building industry four-five dollars per day. Almost all these jobs, except factory work, offers no social security for the work force and cases where workers were abused, for instance being refused to pay what was initiallypromised, were quite common. The benefit dependent poor have very low levels o f education. Almost all the men and women interviewed were either illiterate, primary school leavers or primary school graduates. Among the women the proportion o f the illiterate and those who have not 105  completed primary school are even higher. In addition, the benefit dependent poor have little or no occupational training, formal or informal, o f any kind. Inthis sense the most important correlate o f poverty emerges as poor education and lack o f adequate skills. The virtual absence o f educated people among the very poor indicates that a minimum o f education and vocational training can be a safeguard against absolute poverty. I11health seriously limits the range o fjob opportunities that the poor can take and as such becomes a major source o f low income and poverty. To be more exact, the uneducated and unskilled laborers earn the highest wages or incomes in the most laborious and difficult trades such the building industry, coal mines, brick making, bakeries and garment industry where work hours are irregular and labor i s least protected. Havingbeen deprived o f work in such areas the poor that suffer from illhealth would go for the relatively easy and less strenuous jobs such as garbage picking, street selling and shoe shining. However, almost all these are jobs offer comparatively little pay. Also ill health preventsregular work as the sick can take employment only on a part time, casual and temporary basis. Inthe villages the employment opportunities are more limitedand employment is on a more temporary basis while wages are significantly lower than inthe urbanareas. In the rural countryside the most common form o f work i s agricultural labor. This may involve working on sugar beet, cotton or tobacco farms or picking apricots, hazelnuts or apples. In addition, the very poor would be employed as sheppards, night watchmen, lumberjacks or wood choppers. Women generally join man inagricultural wage-work. In the summer o f 2001 the daily wage for agricultural labor was in the range two-three dollars per day. Especially in the village, the employers also tend to pay their workers in kind in various farm products. It is generally emphasized that the majority o f these jobs kept household members busy only for one month and occasionally for a maximum o f two months ina year. The majority o f the village poor were either landless families or they were people who owned a very tiny plot in generally low yield dry lands on which the entire family can hardly survive. Similarly ownership o f a few sheep and cattle is useful for getting milk and making dairy products but not all have access to these and secondly the dairy products remain as a small component o f the family subsistence needs. Finally, the majority o f the village poor, that i s men, worked as circular migrants in the building industry, in labor-intensive industries and as street sellers in low-income, unskilled, seasonaljobs especially when they were young. The elderly and the sick however find it difficult to take such employment. The urban areas provide a wider range o f job opportunities although these too would be generally low-paid. For instance, in the big cities such as Istanbul, many have mentioned that they had at one point worked in the garment industry, an opportunity that hardly exists inthe villages and smaller cities. Even the most important source o f employment for the unskilled workers, the building industry, is most vigorous inthe bigger cities and the metropolitan areas. Inthe big cities more people in the family are able to find work however poorly paid, insecure and temporary the jobs are. 106  The female-headed households are among the poorest and the most desperate in that w omen have the greatest difficulty in findingj obs and they therefore suffer from extreme shortage o f cash. Since the majority o f women have very low levels o f education and do not have the relevant skills for work, they are the most disadvantaged inthe labor market. The poor female-headed households can have access to only three mainjobs. In the rural areas they take work as agricultural laborers in seasonal trades and activities but these keep them busy for a very short period. The second possibility which i s more common in the cities i s paid domestic work. In this particular case however, they often risk getting help from neighbors and relatives who do not approve outside employment for women (Kalaycioglu and Rittesberger-Till$,1998). Furthermore, such women would have difficulty finding someone to look after their small children. The third possibility would be working at home but jobs provided by such industries as carpet weaving and home knitting are few and not all women can have access to these. Incase o f all kinds o f paid work, the problem that many confront i s that they are generally causal and temporary 1ow-paidj obs that o ffer n o social s ecurity. S ome among the poor widowed women have regular, but very low pensions from their dead husbands. Thus, such families are the most highly vulnerable and benefit dependent whether o n government welfare systems or on informal networks o f solidarity. Food The basic food items that the poor consume most frequently as part o f their staple diet include the following; flour and its derivatives (bread, bulgur-cracked wheat, macaroni), rice, cooking oil, salt, sugar, tomato paste, potatoes, eggs and tea. The benefit dependent poor, and especially those poorest among them, cannot always secure even a minimumsupply of these items intheir kitchen. The extremely poor families who try to survive on the edge o f the starvation line would most frequently have tea with bread for breakfast and bread, whether home made or bought from outside, and either with `flour soup' or one o f bulgur, macaroni, rice or boiled potatoes for dinner. Tomato paste would almost always be used as an ingredient to cook these dishes. Inthe summer months the majority o f the poor, including those who are better off, would have bread and uncooked vegetables i.e. tomatoes, green pepper and cucumber for breakfast and very frequently for lunch too. Even the most desperate in their most difficult times would maintain a minimumquantity o f flour, cooking oil, sugar and tomato paste. Occasionally the poorest families may have difficulty in maintaining this bare minimum regularly but in such cases the possibility o f receiving food from neighbors i s particularly high. At times when the poor family really becomes desperate, the very close neighbors, however poor they themselves would be, will tend to offer help in the form o f cooked dishes (a pot o f bulgur, macaroni, soup, boiled potatoes). The destitute however have also reported cases o f almost absolute hunger for a day or even two. At this particular level o f food consumption, bread is consumed in large quantities and constitutes the most important component of the diet. As one o f the respondents has expressed so clearly, `ours i s not living but eating bread'. The daily consumption o f bread (approximately 300 grams) varies between one and two loaves per person, and especially the adults eat a minimum o f two loaves per day. Hence, in the 107  urban areas a family o f five persons report buyingten loaves per day. This would cost the family roughly 30,000,000-45,000,000 TL ($20-30) per month. Inmany parts o f Turkey, the municipalities subsidize bread; for instance, in Ankara the price o f 'peoples bread' is 100,000 TL (6,5 cents). To have access to subsidized bread however, some members o f the family and generally the women have to wait on the line for at least several hours in the very early morning. There i s clear evidence to support the argument that where such provision i s available families find it both cheaper and more convenient to buy bread instead o f making it at home. Buying bread i s more convenient because its alternative, that i s making traditional Turkish bread ('yuJka) at home i s a laborious process requiring the joint efforts o f a few women and the organization o f a system o f labor exchange that cannot be easily arranged in the urban context. On the other hand, considering not only the expenses for flour but also the LPGhatural gas, an expensive item that many families have great difficulty in maintaining, making bread at home i s not always cheap. Therefore, it i s mainly those poor families who do not have access to subsidized bread in their localities andthe bulk o f the rural poor who tendto make their own bread. To these can be added those families who suffer from extreme shortage o f cash and those who get food help in the form o f flour. Therefore, in the urban areas at least, making bread at home i s not a defining aspect o f poverty as i s often assumed. Factors such as the high level o f commoditization inthe economy, the widespread availability o f subsidized bread inthe cites, and the shortage of labor in the family due to changes in family size and composition that is, the shift from large, compact and crowded extended families to the smaller and relatively isolated nuclear one, all render making bread at home less convenient for most o f the urbanpoor. Eventhe poorest families buy flour inlarge quantities, usually inthe 50 kg. sacks that cost 23,000,000 ($15). First, keeping a minimum stock o f flour is a security against shortage o f bread and secondly it i s used for preparing staples such as flour soup and erigte (home made macaroni) as well as various kinds o f pastry, provided that the family can afford expensive ingredients such as cheese. Occasionally the employers pay their workers inkindinthe form o f sacks o f flour. The very poor families tend to compare the value o f other goods against the price o f flour. Though they cannot keep big stocks, the other food items that even the poorest o f the poor try to have intheir homes are cooking oil, tomato paste, sugar and tea. The most commonly used cooking oil i s sunflower and com oil and occasionally the margarine. The highly desperate families would also use the cheapest o f all, that is, cotton seed oil. The poor families always search for the cheap and low quality substitutes. For instance, whereas good quality sunflower oil in the supermarkets cost 12,000,000-15,000,000 TL. ($8-10) for a 5kg. bottle, the cheaper substitutes can be obtained for only 8,000,000- 9,000,000 T L ($6). A family o f five persons w ould normally c onsume t his amount o f cooking oil ina month's time. On the other hand, a few cans o f tomato paste that a n average family would consume in one month would cost nearly 2,000,000 TL ($1,5). A similar amount would be spent on sugar provided that it i s used for sweetening tea or hot water only. As a matter o f fact, the benefit dependent poor hardly make deserts at all. Finally, tea, which i s the only hot drink that the poor have for breakfast and throughout the day would cost the family only two or three dollars per month. 108  The other important category o f food items that the very poor consume in large quantities, indeed the most essential component o f their diet, consists o f bulgur, macaroni andrice. Many families w ould altemate these three staples for dinner and they would always have them with bread and onions. An average family would consume an amount between half a kilo and one kilo o f these items per meal and their prices for kilo vary between 500,000 and 1,000,000 TL (30-60 cents). Although the price o f rice can be much more expensive the cheapest variety that the poor use can be purchased for only 400,000 TL (25 cents) from the weekly markets. Finally, depending on the amount o f cash or credit that i s available, the poor families would occasionally supplement such staples with lentils, dried beans and dried chick peas. Sometimes the very poor who live close to the weekly markets can pick rotten vegetables and fruits or buy these at very low value in the late evening when sellers dampen prices in order to get rid o f their stocks (Varqn, 1988). There were cases where some poor menhave mentioned that they walk around in the market to find sellers to work for in retum for a few kilos o f fresh vegetables and h i t s . Inthe case of such very poor families monthly expenditure for food would vary between 50,000,000-75,000,00OTL ($30-50) for a family o f five to seven persons. The unemployed, the casually employed, the sick and the disabled who do not have access to government food aid, the extremely crowded families with only one person employed on a very low wage and specifically those who do not have access to any rural subsidy have great difficulty inmaintainingthis minimumamount. The very poor people generally suffer from frequent shortages o f cash and credit in achieving this level of food consumption and for many of them conditions have become even worse during the economic crisis. In the majority o f the interviews it was observed that the poor families who could regularly provide the standard meals described above, considered themselves as lucky. In the worst cases witnessed during the fieldwork, families who had no regular income were unable to maintain even the minimumfood stock for cooking some o f the dishes mentioned above. Insuch situations the family survived on having bread and cooking oil, bread and tomato paste, bread and potatoes and sometimes only bread. It was observed at least intwo cases that the families were living on the edge o f starvation as their children occasionally slept hungry. The unemployed father o f seven children in a squatter settlement o f Istanbul expressed his sorrow in the following words, `Ido not go home, Ifind myself a place to hide in the darkness until the children sleep so that Iavoid the tragic sight o f my hungry children crying for food'. Insuch cases, the poor wouldhavea few safety valves to prevent starvation. First, the poor would have access to the food aid provided by the government. The Social Solidarity Fund (SSF) gives a food package generally consisting o f staples such as cooking oil, macaroni, sugar, flour, tea and tomato paste. Food i s distributed by the provincial government administration to the needy families periodically, for instance, once in every six months. The families who benefit from food aid report that the contents o f the package meet their basic food requirements for almost one month, depending o f course on the size o f the family. Secondly, as part o f poor relief measures various 109  government institutions and private foundations would give free meals to the poor in places called agevi; inthis case, the families would bring their own dishes from home to get their share o f the cooked meal. The most important food help however comes from the neighbors and relatives, and specifically from the former. The interview results indicate that help from relatives to their needykin i s quite common and such help can be incash or kindbut as many among the relatives tendto live indifferent parts ofthe city or even elsewhere direct food help, especially cooked meals, comes mainly from neighbors. Despite deteriorating economic conditions in the country and the declining incomes in the poor neighborhoods there i s strong evidence to suggest that food help to the most desperate families continues. Often the families who help their neighbors are also very poor but because food aid i s not very costly they can afford it. It i s reported that making food aid gives the donor additional self-assurance and increases his self-esteem as he sees himselfdoingjust fine while others fail. Inother words, such people take pride inthe fact they still survive and are able to help others. Another source ofbenefits would be the affluent people in the neighborhood such as the local shop owners. For instance, the mahalle (quarter) grocer who would normally make credit sales to his poor customers would give various food items free to the most needy. Thus, on several occasions it was observed that grocers were o f crucial help to the destitute as they sent them food items with their clerks. The most significant variable that effects food consumption in the household i s not only the level but also the stability o f income. Provided that there i s in the household, even in a crowded family, at least one member who eams a minimum wage or even an amount slightly below or above this on a regular basis, the family becomes quite independent and relatively secure in maintaining at least the staple food items. Furthermore, such families would then have more credit from the local suppliers such as the mahalle grocers who make credit sales more easily to reliable customers who have regular income. Inother words, the availability o f a minimum regular income i s a remedy against the threat o f starvation and extreme social deprivation. Families who once used to be work-rich, that are having more than one member with a regular income, have now become with the economic crisis work-poor ones, having only one member or even none at work. The absence o f a regular income i s most typical o f female-headed households, and others where the household heads sick and the disabled or unskilled casual workers. Often, those families who have completely broken their relations with close the kin, neighbors and the hemgeri (people o f same place o f origin) experience poverty in more severe terms. The maintenance o f such informal solidarity networks guarantees at least a minimum o f benefits in the form o f food to overcome starvation. Whatever the reasons for such social breakdown, the most desolate are those who live as social isolates. On the other hand, for some among the poor the rural-urban links are o f significance in providing the basic food needs during the most difficult times. Otherwise, the family would have no other choice but to depend completely on the irregular and unpredictable helpthat comes from neighbors and alien people. What distinguish the poor who have regular incomes from the benefit dependent poor interms o f food consumption are three major characteristics. First, as different from the very poor the regular income eaming families can afford to buy vegetables and fruits 110  on a more regular basis. Secondly, they would normally have at least a small stock o f basic food items in their kitchen and have regular meals, however poor their diet would be. Thirdly, those who have regular income can afford food that contains proteins though often this would be available inrelatively small quantities. First, the regular income earning poor would generally maintain at least a minimum stock o f cooking oil, flour, sugar, tomato paste, bulgur, macaroni, rice, tea, eggs and potatoes. Depending on the extent o f the availability o f cash or credit, at least moderate stocks o f some o f these basic food items would be maintained; thus the food stock would involve a sack o f flour and potatoes and small containers o f some o f the basic food items. As such families can afford buying tomatoes and other vegetables in large quantities inthe summer, they often make their own tomato paste as well as pickles and salted vegetables for winter consumption. Alternatively, such items would be maintained inthe small but expensive one-kilo containers. A major problem inbuyingin kilos i s that it indicates dependence on the mahalle grocer who charges higher prices then the supermarkets and wholesalers (toptam). As a matter o f fact, in the poor neighborhoods, the expression `going for the kilo' describes the highly vulnerable state o f the family. The regular income earning poor also have more regular meals. First, this would involve breakfast with tea, bread, cheese and sometimes olives though they would always go for the cheapest variants. For lunch and dinner, in addition to the staple bulgur, macaroni and rice they would have chick peas, driedbeans-these would cost on average one dollar per kilo-and o f course some vegetables. Inthe case o f cooking dishes such as rice, the more expensive alternative to the vegetable, margarine would be used. Also at better times, these families would get enough sugar to make jam with fruits and some deserts with flour. The second major change that comes with a regular income is frequent shopping from the weekly market. Indeedthe frequent buying o f fruits and vegetables i s the most significant characteristic that distinguishes the benefit dependent poor from those in the higher income brackets. In this particular respect access to the weekly markets is o f crucial importance as the poor families have great difficulty inmeeting the transport costs to reach the more distant ones. The regular income eaming poor t 00 d o most o f their shopping from the weekly markets in the evening when prices get lower in order to buy as cheap as possible. An average family would spend 5,000,000-8,000,000TL ($3-6) per week in the weekly market. With such spending the family would be able to buy approximately t en kilos o f v egetables and fruits. The winter v egetables would include spinach, cabbage, leek, carrots, lettuce, cauliflower in addition to fruits such apples, oranges, and tangerines. The summer list on the other hand would contain primarily tomatoes and eggplants and then green beans, marrows, okra and fruits such as cherries, black cherries, strawberries, peaches, pears and grapes. At it cheapest when the poor buy the average price per kilo for most o f the vegetables and fruits would be 250,000TL (15cents). Onions are also added to this more varied diet. It should be emphasized that the amount spent in the weekly market would include the expenditure on cheese, eggs and olives too. 111  The thirdmajor difference is that regular income normally enables the poor to buy various food items that contain proteins. First, this would include eggs that the poor people fry with oil to serve as the main course, cheese o f the cheapest kind (60-70 cents per kilo) and occasionally milk provided that the farmers inthe vicinity would bringit to the neighborhoodto sell. Cheese is also used as an ingredient inmaking various kinds o f pastry. Yogurt i s consumed very frequently in the rural areas but i s regarded as a luxury bythe urbanpoor. Where they could afford the poor families would use it to make yogurt drink, uyrun, that they have with the bulgur and rice. Another important change in the diet that comes with a stable income is occasional buying o f poultry. The poor families report buying pieces o f chicken a few times in a month and these are often the cheapest parts such as the neck and the wings. Buying offal is also sporadic but these would also be o f the cheapest variety such as lungs that cost only twenty-five cents per kilo. Especially the poor in the coastal regions benefit fiom the very low prices o f fish when there i s an abundant catch. For instance, a kilo o f hamsi, the small fish from the Black Sea, could be purchased inthe weekly markets for only twenty-five cents. The regular income earning poor spend more money on food and maintain a more varied diet. Thus, families report that the average monthly spending on food varies between sixty and eighty dollars. However, even at this stage o f consumption important items such as milk, meat and coffee are rarely purchased and even the relatively cheaper poultry and fish only occasionally enter the family diet. These families often stress that they have meat during the religious holidays and this comes as charity from affluent neighbors and other middle-income families. Food provision also depends on access to grocers, street sellers and the weekly markets. The mahalle grocer, typically available to both the urban and the rural poor, i s also a crucial agent infood distribution since the poor have very low physical mobility in the city. They are significantly restrictedt o the immediate neighborhood inalmost a11 their shopping. The poor o f all grades are indebted to the grocer who charges higher prices than other places such as the supermarkets and the weekly markets. The grocer sells goods on credit, not only food but also other basic necessities such as cleaning materials and stationary, carefilly assessing the economic standing o f the customer. Thus, families have different credit 1imits.The grocer w ouldrefuse t o sell goods t o a customer who passes his limit until o f course the latter pays back some o f his debt in order to have access to new credit. Although the poor would purchase goods from other places too none are as important as the mahalle grocer who provides almost all the basic items o f consumption to especially those who no access to other sources. Such degree o f dependence on a single retail agent is not always to the advantage o f the poor as they often buy goods at relatively higherprices. The easy availability o f the weekly market is o f almost similar significance. Provided that they have access to the weekly market on foot the poor people can buy very cheap food in the late evening or at least pick rotten h i t s and vegetables free o f charge. Inthis particular respect, families who can get to the market by usingtransport and those who live indistant villages are the most disadvantaged. Finally, the street sellers who sell fruits and vegetables on motorized trucks also provide direct access for those who have 112  difficulty in going to the weekly market. In their case too, access depends ultimately on the economic standing o f the household as street sellers reject selling goods to those who have no cash or credit. The rural urban differences in food consumption are considerable. The rural families have on the whole greater difficulty in having access to fruits and vegetables in view o f the fact that some villages and especially the smaller ones do not have weekly markets. The alternative o f going to the nearby town i s more costly and this is something that only the affluent families can afford. A villager in Siirt has mentioned that on his return from the town on the village minibus he always finds it terribly embarrassing to have nothing with him bought from the weekly market. On the other hand, the more affluent villagers would keep some poultry, sheep and cattle and make their own milk, yogurt, cheese and butter. Clothing The majority o f the benefit dependent poor have very little money to spend on clothing. First, many report that they have their very old clothes, which they wear for years. Especially the adults emphasize that they hardly buy anything for themselves. Thus, they typically rely on benefits received from others. Inother words, the extremely poor families are almost totally dependent on benefits in providing their clothing needs. Inthis respect, several major patterns tendto emerge. The rural poor almost completely depend on clothing that comes from their urban relatives and co-villagers. Intheir visits to the village or when villagers visit them inthe city the relatively affluent urban relatives give their excess wear to their rural relatives or give them new clothes as gift. Help to poor people in the form o f direct cash contributions comes mainly from close relatives while both the close well as the more distant ones as well as other associates prefer help in the form of gifts and among these wear, especially for the children are the most prominent. Incase o f giving used clothes the donor enjoys seeing himself as a benevolent person although he does not spend money for purchasing the items. The urban families see giving clothes as part o f their responsibility as they c onsider that they have better access to cheap clothes. There i s also considerable help from urban middle class families and formal charity associations. Secondly, the bulk o f used clothes as well as new ones comes from the relatives in Europe. Furthermore, the village associations that are active inthe urbancontext reachtheir affluent membersto collect items ofusedw ear to be distributed to their poor counterparts in the village. The village associations aim to maintain and developed solidarity among the members o f the migrant community and as such their primary objective i s to contribute to the subsistence o f their members in the city, but in achieving this maintaining close ties with the community o f origin i s necessary. Thus they organize various activities oriented to the village community; giving grants to the needy students from the same village, financing small-scale investments in the village, and making investments to improve the living standards o f the village population (Onen,1987; Erder, 1996). The urban poor too rely excessively on help from others. Intheir case three major channels o f help are particularly outstanding. The first source i s their more affluent 113  relatives whether they live in the same or in different neighborhoods. Secondly, help comes from neighbors. Thirdly, urban middle class families through the maids or other kinds o f intermediaries send their usedclothes to the poor households. Sometimes the headmen o fthe quarter or formal charity associations can assume this particular role. Rarely however, the very poor buy clothes, usually their underwear, and these from the cheapest places, either the street sellers or the stalls in the weekly markets. Mobile sellers on truck reach both the villages and low-income residential areas in the cities but in their case either having ready cash or credit worthiness i s essential or both depend on having regular income. The regular income earning poor also mention that they provide an essential part o f their clothing needs from others in the form o f help or gifts. One major difference i s that gifts from the affluent close relatives for both the children and women are more frequent and generally these would be new ones. The workers in large-scale enterprises and low-level government employees receive some o f their clothes regularly from their employers. However, the regular income earning poor do buy more clothes for themselves from the weekly markets, street sellers and the cheap shops in the neighborhood or inother parts o f the city. Although they spend little money on clothes, in their case, the provision o f clothes through the weekly market becomes more important. Housing Although owner-occupiers do exist the majority o f the poor are tenants. The poor who live in their own houses are the downwardly mobile people who have built a house on the land that they have either purchased or invaded at a time when they were better off. The house owners indicate that they received help from close associates such as relatives, friends and neighbors, mainly inthe form o f labor, inbuildingtheir houses. The case histories o f individual families also indicate that the houses were built gradually as the family was able to save money to invest into the house. Inthe case o f the housing o f the poor the degree o f commoditization remains at a comparatively low level; first, they have free access to such inputs as land andlabor and secondly, the construction materials, such as brick, cement, iron etc. are often received from friends, relatives, neighbors as well as their employers (Duben, 1991). Thus, especially those who worked for the buildingindustrybenefited from constructionmaterials given t o them as gifts and the help provided by their skilled workmates. What actually distinguish the housing o f the downwardly mobile poor from many others i s that they were not consolidators; that is, whereas those with regular and growing incomes have gradually improved their initially small and deficient houses by adding rooms and using better quality construction materials, the downwardly mobile poor were not able to invest money into the maintenance and improvement of their houses. Hence, the houses deteriorated in time. Finally, the benefit dependent poor report that they did not obtain titles for the land because they were unable to pay for the registration expenses. Hence even as owners not paying rent, many did not have the titles to land that would make them into legal house owners. 114  Inthe case ofthe poorest families, the difference between ownership and tenancy in terms of expenditure on housing is almost negligible. This has three major explanations. In the first place, rents are low, secondly, the poorest do not pay regular rents to the house owners and thirdly, dwellings may be provided free o f charge by the close relatives. The rents in the case o f small, low-quality housing i s almost negligible, usually inthe range o f ten or fifteen dollars per month. It should be emphasized that this rule i s applicable almost irrespective o f neighborhood, city or region. Furthermore, when the very poor people are unable to pay their rent they either do not pay at all or they are assisted by neighbors who collect money among them to help them. In such cases, each neighbor would contribute a very small amount o f cash such as fifty cents or one dollar per month. Such initiative and organization is undertaken by the headmen o f the quarter or other community leaders. Help for rent from the neighbors i s more likely to occur in the case o f the needy elderly and widowed women. More common than these however is that the poor tenant simply stops paying any rent. Inthe majority o f the cases, the owner, whether he i s an acquaintance or not, accepts this situation; either seeing this as a way helpingthe desperately poor orjust recognizing that there is no way o f gettingthe money from people who have none. Also, the landowner would not bother too much considering that the legal costs o f eviction would be high and hrthermore, he himself may not have any legal ground for action for not being the legal owner o f the property. Sometimes the landlord would sympathize with the poor tenant who used to pay his rent regularly until he became sick, disabled or unemployed. An additional factor to consider i s that the landowner would be an absentee person living in a different city or abroad and therefore unable to deal with the tenant at all. Only one household head has mentioned that his family needed to change houses frequently to avoid paying rent. Ingeneral however, in the case o f the benefit dependent poor the landlord-tenant disputeswere extremely rare as many poor families only mentioned their gratitude to which they described as their humane, conscientious and benevolent landlords. Duringthe economic crisis the number o f tenants who do not pay rent seems to have increased as some among the very poor have stated that they stopped paying inthe last few months. Finally, some among the very poor were provided with houses by their parents, brothers, sisters or other close kin. The possibility o f having access to free housing is far greater inthe rural than inthe urban areas. The rural poor are more advantaged in finding a vacant house that belongs to a migrant family living in the city or abroad. As a matter o f fact, in the majority o f the villages in Turkey a very high proportion o f the houses are vacant and their owners would be pleased to have caretakers inthem. Inthe urban areas, the parents or brothers who have second houses provide accommodation for their poor relatives. In several cases the poor families lived in their parent's houses while they remained totally cross with them. Eventhe very poor show a general willingness to live in separate houses despite the fact that it would deprive them of important economic advantages that livingwith the parents would bring. The poor live in different types o f houses: these would include village dwellings, gecekondu houses, single room tenements and apartment flats. Houses also vary significantly as to their size, location, quality and the legal status. On the whole however, 115  the houses o f the poor are often much smaller than those o f their middle class counterparts. Inaddition, they are inferior inquality and often lack security o ftenure. Living inapartment flats is extremely rare but where this is the case the buildings are old and in very bad condition; these typically have slum characteristics as being marked by a high density o f population, dilapidated surfaces, inadequate servicing o f utilities and deteriorating infrastructure. InMalatya for instance, a poor family lived in an apartment block that was initiallybuilt by the government for the earthquake victims. The most appalling conditions are seen in the case o f single room tenements that accommodate crowded families o f more than five-six persons where numerous people have to share the toilet and kitchen facilities. InAdana, each room, facing a small internal courtyard w as o ccupied as a t enement by a s ingle family; the t enants, s ome o f whom were relatives, had to share all the facilities. Inthe rooms parents and children and family membersof different sexes lived andslept indiscriminately. Inanother place, the families reported that fifty o f themused the s ame toilet, which infact w as n o t c onnected t o a sewerage system. The single room gecekondu tenements are most typically found in the Southem provinces o f Turkey that have wann climates. The rural houses are almost invariably bigger than their urban counterparts as they often have several rooms and a separate toilet. The old village houses are made with traditional building materials such as ox-dung, mud or stone and the recently built ones are made o f brick. Both are low quality and in some important ways especially the latter are comparable to the urban gecekondu houses. Typically, the gecekondu i s a separate dwelling with or without a small garden but it varies significantly in size and interms o f the quality o fthe dwelling. Those who have small gardens use them to keep a few poultry and occasionally to grow vegetables. However, the vast majority o f the gecekondu houses where poor families lived were very small, virtually single room dwellings with only four walls and a roof (Senyapill, 1978; Tatlidil, 1987). The very poor suffer not only from the smallness o f the size and the inferior quality o f the house but also from the insecurity o f tenure that could lead to the demolition o f the house and their eviction. The majority o f the houses lacked facilities such as tap water and sewerage. Generally, the toilets were outside o f the house and this made it very difficult for the dwellers to use it in cold weather especially when there were sick people in the family. In a few cases the toilet was just a hole dug into the ground. Inthe majority o f the houses functional separation o f space did not exist as for instance, the same places in the house were used invariably as living room, kitchen and bedroom. Inthe case o f single room dwellings the same room is used for all these purposes while the entrance corridor would be used as a bathroom. Even the two bedroom houses frequently lack such specialized use o f space. The poor families typically take their bath in a basin or they simply use a big bawl filled with water for this purpose. Many complain about water leaking form the roof and ina few cases the roofwas made o f bricks laid on a plastic cover that collapsed after every heavy rainfall or even when a cat or a dog jumped on. Similarly, the majority o f the families mentioned that water came from the ground and the walls. In some cases the brick made walls were not coated and painted and therefore the house had only minimal protection against outside 116  weather. Very often the owners and the tenants complained about cracks and holes on the walls that allowed cold air to enter. In other cases, the poorest households could not afford to put glass on the windows as their children slept incold winter weather inrooms where windows were covered with wood and plastic. Almost all the poor families have reported that they suffered from extremes o f moisture and humidity. In a widow's house inGiresun, the interviewer noticedthat after a littlewhile she could not take notes on her paper, which virtually became wet. Inone extreme case inthe Halkali gecekondu district o f Istanbul it was found that the floor in the house where people had to step on or even sleep was the sheer earth that turned into mud after every rain and the only measure that the tenants could take was to lay broken bricks to avoid stepping on the mud. The houses o f the benefit dependent and the regular income earning poor differ significantly interms o f both the size and the quality o f the dwelling as well as the degree o f provision o f infrastructure services. Thus, while only some among the benefit dependent poor have painted walls, glass on windows, roof coverage, concrete floors and at least a separate kitchen, the majority o f the regular income earning poor did. In the case o f those with regular incomes, three differences are particularly noteworthy. First, the minimum rents are much higher ($ 40-60) and all those interviewed have said that they didpay their rent regularly. For the tenant, the rent becomes a very important part o f household expenditure making something between one quarter and one third o f the total. Secondly, although many were two-three bedroom dwellings they are on average bigger than those in which the benefit dependent poor lived. For instance, the regular income earning poor do not live in single-room houses or tenements. Finally, they all had separate kitchens though in a number o f cases the toilets were outside o f the house and there was no separate bathroom. Inother words, the functional separation o f space in the house was definitely at a more advanced stage. Nevertheless, not all the regular income earning families were able to take care o f the maintenance and repairs in their houses adequately. In this respect there was an obvious difference between the owners and tenants as the latter who saved from rent investedmore money into the house in order to keep it in good condition while the tenants bothered little about painting the walls or changing damaged or broken parts and equipment. Sources o f complaint were similar to those o f the benefit dependent poor; extreme moisture, inadequate heating, insufficient isolation against cold and inferior quality construction materials. ConsumptionDurables Interms o fownership o felectronic goods, hrniture, kitchen utensils andbedroom facilities the households can be divided into three major categories: the very poor, the intermediate and the well equipped. The latter were always those who had at least one person in the family earning a regular income. The very poor would have only a minimum of household goods and consumption durables including a mattress or two, blankets, a few kitchen utensils, and several chairs. In such houses the electronic goods would be almost totally absent or there would only be a few o f them such as a cassette recorder, a fridge and an old TV set. In addition, some o f the household goods were almost always out o f order. In one extreme case in the Halkali district o f Istanbul the family had only a few pots, glasses and four blankets. In a gecekondu house in Malatya 117  there was no furniture at all and the clothes were hang on nails that were put on the walls. In the case of the intermediate families, there would be one or two electronic goods, kitchen utensils, an LPG/gas cooker, bedroom facilities and household furniture involving a mattress, a settee and a few chairs, a chest, and a carpet, though a cheap and old one, to cover at least some part o f the floor. Generally speaking, the poor families report that the household goods they use are old, have major defects and some are always out o f order. What really matters then is not the presence or absence o f these items but whether they are in good or bad condition, that i s whether they are in use or not. One major reason why so many families had so many out o f order electronic goods i s that they could not afford their maintanance and repair costs. Finally, in the case o f electronic goods it needs to be stressed that the washing machines that the poor had were not the automatic type and some o f the TV's were black and white. On the other hand, none o f those interviewed have mentioned having VCR's, microwave cookers, ovens and computers. The way that the poor provide access to such household goods and consumption durables vary. Onthe whole a good part o f the household goods were obtained free inthe form o f gifts from relatives, neighbors, workmates and employers. The affluent relatives bought new electronic goods for their poor associates whereas the neighbors usually gave used and old ones. The close relatives often sent electronic goods from other towns, cities and from abroad and in the case o f the village poor almost all came from outside the village, just as in the case o f their clothes. A rough estimation would indicate that more than one half o f the household items were provided as gifts. The relatives who could not help incash tried to make their close associates happy by buyingthem various household items or somehow contributing to their purchase. One reason why the poor can afford electronic goods and consumption durables is that they often buy cheap second hand ones. For instance, many reported that in the second hand shops they could buy fridges and TV set for ten, fifteen dollars and depending on the degree o f their credit worthiness they could pay for these on installments. Inthe case o f second hand goods, o f course, there would be no guarantees and since they are used and old anyway they would get out o f order quickly. This is the other reason why the poor report having so many out o f order goods intheir houses. The very poor could rarely purchase new durable items on credit. In their c ase, buying on credit was limited to their encounters with the grocers who sold them the basic needs such as food and cleaning materials. Inthe case ofhouseholdor durable consumptiongoods, the benefit dependent and the regular income earning poor differedintwo major respects. First, the latter have a far greater number o f household goods and consumption durables, which are relatively new, and unlike those in the case o f the benefit dependent poor, generally in use. Secondly, since the regular income earning poor buy new items on credit they are generally indebted and spend an important part o f their income for this purpose. Inother words, the purchase o f consumption durables and various household items becomes in their case a source o f negative saving. A mid-aged worker in a bakery has formulated this situation in the following words, `we breath with installments'. At this level o f income, various 118  durable consumption goods are seen not as luxury but as necessities and the families invest continuously inthese goods. Inother words, negative savings is an essential factor that underlines their financial difficulties. These families on the other hand, have great difficulty in sending their children to school, paying for surgery expenses or even buying food. In the well equipped houses, the regular income earning poor would have, in addition to chairs, LPG/gas cookers, mattresses, fridges and TV sets, also washing machines, hovers, wardrobes, living room furniture, telephones and occasionally dishwashers. However, it needs to be emphasized that the poor with regular incomes also receive some o f these items as gifts from their affluent relatives. Utilities and Services Insufficient heating i s one o f the most significant aspects o f poverty in a country where the majority o f population suffer from cold winters. The low-income households are almost totally deprived o f central heating facilities and for many the best substitute i s the coal-burning stove. Although the majority o f the poor families have both the wood burningand coal-burning stoves, they have great difficulty inmaintaining fuel stocks. In the interior and eastern parts o f the country as well as some coastal parts in the north where winters are cold a family with children would need a minimumamount of two tons o f coal and one ton o fwood for the year and the expenses for these i s beyond the reach o f many poor and specifically the poorest households. The municipalities, the government and various charity foundations provide free coal and fuel for some families but the majority o f the poor report that they have either no access to these whatsoever or what they get i s not sufficient at all. The poor families would then look for cheaper substitutes such as sawdust, hazel nut crust, wood from fruit trees, bark o f trees, sticks, thoms and sunflower stems. The worst options however include burningcloth and pet bottles, which can have serious poisonous effects. The rural poor who have access to local woods are advantaged compared with their urban counterparts. A coal-burning stove can be purchased for nearly sixty and a wood burning one for thirty dollars and once acquired these can be used for a long time. The price o f coal per ton varies between one hundred and one hundredand sixty dollars and that o f wood between fifty and sixty. The cheaper fmit tree variety can be bought for only thirty dollars per ton but it yields less calories. Provided that a combination o f coal and wood i s usedthe minimumexpenses for fuel would come to two hundreddollars per year. Depending on the size o f the house as well as the household and the number o f appliances used the payment for electricity varies between three and six dollars per month. The interview results confirm that even the poorest families use electricity. Those unable to pay for the bills are assisted by their relatives and neighbors when their electricity i s cut. On the other hand, all the poor families interviewed in the squatter housing district o f Istanbul, Halkali, have mentioned that they use electricity illegally and as it i s frequently emphasized in the press, the practice i s extremely widespread in the 119  Eastern and Southeastern provinces. In such cases, the poorest families would be using the most expensive form o fheating that is electricity. Unlike electricity however, not all houses have runningwater. Those that do, tend to pay on average three dollars per month for the water bill. As expected, the poor do not have any running hot water facilities in their houses; hot water is generally provided by boiling water on the cooker, stove or the fire place for washing dishes, clothes and taking a bath. Inthe majority o f the cases, the absence o f runningwater is due to the fact that the service i s not available inthe neighborhood. Runningwater services are more deficient in both the villages and the very recently founded poor gecekondu settlements in the cities. In the villages, water is provided from a variety of resources including the fountains, wells, neighbors who have motor pumps andthrough the stream. Inthe cities, inaddition to the fountains, other sources would include borrowing from public buildings such as schools and the trucks and lorries that that carry water tanks as part o f municipal services. Inthe case of fuel used for cooking too, the very poor families tendto combine a variety o f s ources t o minimize their expenses. Almost a11families have LPG c ookers, whether the large or the small size, but because o f high, and especially in the last few years, steadily rising costs, cannot always replenish their stocks. The large LPG container normally lasts for four to six weeks and costs approximately twelve dollars. On the other hand, the small LPG container that i s generally used for both cooking and making tea costs only two-three dollars. The poor households can provide LPG containers from the local stores on credit but when they exceed their credit limits they cannot get hold o f the new ones. Inthe winter months, the stove too i s commonly used for cooking and boiling water while inthe summer both the rural as well as the gecekondu families may resort to the even cheaper alternative o f using the traditional fire place. It was mentioned in a number o f occasions that some quarters in the gecekondu areas would set up a big fire place for the poor families to use in common. As a way o f strategy, the families having regular incomes would keep both the small and large LPG containers and would replenish at least the small one in cases o f extreme shortage o f cash or credit. However, they too would use the stove inwinter and the fire-place insummer for cooking purposes. Although nearly one half o f the families interviewed had telephones in their houses not all were able to benefit regularly from telephone services. On the one hand, some did not have any telephones at all whereas others had it out o f service as they were unable to pay for the bill on time. Occasionally there were cellular phones used by individual family members but these were not always accessible to all. Some on the other hand had recently sold their cellular phones. The telephone bills that the poor paidtended to vary between ten and twenty dollars per month. The difference between the benefit dependent and the regular income earning poor was considerable in that the latter had, without exception, telephones in their houses. On the whole, the poor who have regular incomes would benefit more from electricity, water and telephone services and they would pay slightly more for them. The majority o f the urban poor enjoy street lighting and asphalt roads but these are absent in some villages and in the very recently built gecekondu neighborhoods. The 120  absence o f proper roads becomes a major problem in the winter months and in regions that receive heavy rainfall as the inhabitants suffer seriously from mud that dirt their shoes and clothes. Both the adults who go to work as well as the children going to school tend to walk in order to minimize transportation costs. In the tough climates under extremes o f heat and cold walking to work becomes a major burden especially for men going to work. As the very poor families mainly use the local store and local market for shopping they rarely spend money on travel to the city center and they also tend to minimize their visits to other parts o f the city to rare occasions such as funerals and weddings. On the other hand, the average bus and minibus fair in the big cites i s nearly thirty-forty cents and a person who travels to work regularly has to pay nearly twenty dollars per month provided that he uses this service regularly. Inthe villages on the other hand the access to the town is provided by the privately operated minibus services and by public buses in the case o f those settlements that have municipalities. The villagers also say that they can get a lift from the car or tractor owners intheir villages when they have to go to the town and especially incases o f emergency. Education Children's education i s effected by a number o f families including income level, health, home environment and access to educational facilities (Karasan, 1991). In the case o f one third o f the very poor benefit dependent families there was at least one child who suffered from a major disease and some o f these were chronic diseases. I11health i s the single most important factor that effects the school performance o f the child in a very negative way. The sick children either cannot attend the school properly or find it difficult to concentrate on their lessons and work. Families are in general willing to find jobs for their school aged children at least during the vacations but because of the scarcity o f employment opportunities not all o f them are able to do so. In the rural areas the children join their parents in agricultural work incase that there i s a family farm but more frequently they work with their parents as agricultural laborers. Inthe urban areas they undertake various informal jobs or work as casual laborers. Families emphasize that the earnings o f their children are primarily divertedto meetingtheir school expenses and other essential needs. Hence, especially the good students show increased willingness to earn money in order to maintain continuity ineducation. In general however, children's work would not be complementary for their education. Especially where the children have access to relatively stable and well-paid jobs work becomes a substitute for education, as needy families do not want to be deprived o f an important income source by keeping children at school. In other words, poverty itself becomes the most serious obstacle to the education o f children. Especially where childrenare not among the brightest in class, the threat o f parents t aking them from school becomes more immanent as income from work, however meager, becomes the priority o f t he family. The children themselves o ften w ant t 00 1eave the s chool in order to work. Sometimes the parents have to make a choice between two or more 121  children as to educate only one o f them and let the other work; in such cases their preferences for the school would first be the brighterones and secondly the boys. Most families however, are highly enthusiastic about the education o f their children. The education o f the children i s seen as investment into the future, the most important source o f security not only for the children themselves but for the parents and indeed the whole family. Thus, many have mentioned their children's school expenses among the most fundamental needs o f the household. The parents' willingness however primarily depends on the school performance o f the child. Hence, even the most desperate families make great effort to keep their successful children at school. Some can achieve this untilthe end o f the HighSchool but for further stages they are almost totally helpless. Since parents cannot send them to good schools and to the expensive preparation courses the poor children's chances o f getting to the university i s very low and those few who do, find it very difficult to meet the expenses o f living in a different city. In such cases the parents would ask for support from relatives, neighbors, employers, charity associations and the government authorities. The financial difficulties encountered in meeting the expenses the for school dress, shoes, books, stationery, school fees and school meals urge families to take their children from school. As most schools are in walking distance and as the government provides free transport for village children who go to town schools, transport costs do not appear as an important source o f complaint. Families unanimously emphasize that worsening economic crises and the decline o f regular sources o f income in the family seriously threaten the education o f their children. Finally, it should be emphasized that factors such as taking girls from school so that they would help their mothers at home in housework, the absence o f schools in the vicinity as in the case o f some Eastern Anatolian provinces and the recently established gecekondu areas and, the absence o f children's birthcertificates also prevent the schooling o fthe children. The poor families have great difficulty in providing proper wear, school bags books and stationery, meals, and school fees for their children. Hence, many have reported that they were unable to provide at least some of these items during the school year. For instance, for primary school children in advanced years books cost a minimum o f twenty-thirty dollars and provided that there are two children in the family, the cost would double to become a major financial burden on the household. Thus, frequently, the parents would let their children go to school without books. Although what i s often at stake i s very little money, the extremely poor families cannot afford all the items o f school expenses as they have very low and irregular incomes and as they suffer chronically from shortage o f cash. The school children are helped by a host o f persons and institutions in both monetary terms and in kind. It must be emphasized that in the majority o f the cases assistance in kindbecomes more important than direct cash contributions. As a matter o f fact, cash contributions are made by the government and in some towns and cities local government agencies also contribute to the expenses. The major government institution that helps the poor i s the SSF. In the year 2001 the SSF gave nearly twenty dollars per 122  children to the poor families and there were incidents where more than one child in the family benefited from government aid. On the other hand, there were also very poor families who were denied any help. The government and local government institutions also distribute benefits inthe form o f books, stationary and school dress. Finally, it needs to be added that there were very few families who have reported that they had children in the boarding government schools. The poor emphasize that they are able to send their children to school only with the help they receive from their associates; these would include relatives, neighbors and hemSeri as well as middle-class charity associations. Often, help i s inkind, inthe form o f books, stationary, school bags, school dress, shoes and contributions to the registration fees. The family strategy i s generally one o f combining these sources. Close relatives such as brothers and sisters, parents and first cousins respond to children's various needs and sometimes this takes the form o f giving second hand school materials to the needy children. Affluent relatives in Europe are particularly helpful. On the other hand, especially the teachers but also the headmen inthe quarter mobilize and organize help for the poor students in order to keep them at school. Finally few families have mentioned that they send their children to relatives inother towns and cities inorder to provide them better educational opportunities. Continuity and success in education significantly depends on the attitude o f the teacher: teachers who make effort to mobilize help for the poor children and are supportive o f them play a very important role in keeping children at school while those indifferent and intolerant tend to alienate them. Supportive attitudes would include helping the children to provide their needs, collecting money from other students to help the needy children, providing them meals at school and reporting the poor children as eligible and deserving o f government subsidy. On the other hand, the poor families have stressed that the unfriendly attitudes o f the teachers were among the main reasons why their children have deserted school. The children o f the poor are thoroughly disadvantaged in their irregular attendance to school due to such factors as illness, absence o f school materials, proper dress and parents' neglect. In addition, such children do not have sufficient study space and an adequate study environment at home as many live in noisy and highly inconvenient single or two-room houses where the same space i s used as a living room, bedroom and kitchen. Finally, there were a few problems concerning the parents. First, even the highly enthusiastic parents can do little to help their children with homework and various problems related to school as they themselves are uneducated and busy in their minds with the cares o f the day. Secondly, the parents and especially the mothers are not good in establishing relations with the teachers and other school authorities. For instance, especially the fathers say that they never visit the children's school and some were not even able to mention the school's name. The extension o f primary education to eight years has increased the financial burden o f the poor families who now have to keep more children at school and thus to have more dependent members in the family. Children who are not gainfully employed 123  become a major drain on family resources. However, it should be stressed that the significant decline in the birth rate and hence the number o f children in the family ease this burden and make the majority o f the families, especially those that earn regular income, give priority to the education o f their children. The benefit dependent poor families are indeed very poor in education; often the parents, the elderly brothers and sisters and the younger children (considering the numbers o f school leavers) are either illiterate or at most primary school graduates. Furthermore, among the poor families the elderly children who continued into higher education were extremely few. As a matter o f fact only four children in the case o f the benefit dependent families were able to go beyond the middle school level: these included only one graduate o f Commercial HighSchool, one nurse, one student inhigher vocational education and finally one student o f medicine who was sponsored by affluent relatives. As such evidence clearly indicates, poverty itself is the major obstacle to achieving intergenerational mobility through education. Access to regular income dramatically improves the prospects for the education o f the children though it i s particularly these low-income families who suffer most from expenses on education. Families having regular income become more committed to keeping their children at school and put more effort to see that they continue their education. In the first place, the level o f education o f the parents would be higher; mothers would normally have primary school education and at least some among the fathers have either attended or completed middle school education. Such parents tend to see the education o f their children as their ultimate goal in life and the best investment into the children's as well as their own future. First, they are more active inhelpingtheir children with homework at least in the first few years o f the primary school education. The mothers visit their children's school and the teachers more regularly. Secondly, they are able spend more money on their education. For instance, some parents have mentioned that they spent on average between sixty and one hundred dollars for direct education expenses depending o f course, on the grade and level o f their children at school. Thirdly, although they too encouraged their children to work, employment was limitedto the vacationperiod and the money they earned was usedexclusively for school expenses. The most obvious consequence was that the children have tended to continue into higher levels. Then however, the education o f children becomes a major financial challenge for the parents. The expenses increase as the grade and level o f the student in education rises and it i s specifically at the High School level that the costly urgency o f sending the children to private preparation courses for the university entrance exams becomes essential. For the few successful students who go to vocational high schools and universities the minimum monthly living expenses start from one ninety dollars per month, an amount that equals on average to two thirds o f their income. The poor students inthe universitycan provide only up to one third of their monthly expenses through the government provided scholarships. Nevertheless, it needs to be stressed that inthe case o f the families having regular incomes intergenerational mobility through education becomes a real option at least for a select few. 124  Health The poor suffer from health problems to a far greater extent than the well to do and the rich and the relationship between poverty and illhealth i s a particularly strong one. These would stem from a number o f factors; the high incidence o f work and traffic accidents; malnutrition; greater exposure to microbes and disease in the house and neighborhood environment due to insufficient sanitary conditions; delayed or insufficient medical treatment; in the case o f women giving birth to too many children; higher incidence o f violence in the neighborhood; higher frequency o f accidents that give damage to the children in the absence of adult care and surveillance. Often, a combination o f such factors would create serious health problems for both the children and the adults. Thus many among the poor suffer from major health problems acquired in the early years inlife which well to do people would easily avoid. A characteristic aspect o f absolute poverty is that the children do not generally get continuous, proper, and sufficient medical treatment. Some examples for most frequently mentioned illnesses include conjunctivitis, convulsion, hyperactivity syndrome, down syndrome, speech difficulties, enuresis, rickets, mental retardation, asthma, congenital heart defects, vertigo, strabismus, bone deficiency, tonsils, rheumatism complaints, bronchitis, sinusitis, pneumonia, hearing deficiency, growth failure and psychological disorders. Some o f these illnesses result from malnutrition and poor living conditions that upsetthe immunity system o f the body. Inaddition, the children inthe poor families have more frequent accidents due to absence o f proper parental or adult care and playing in more risky environments. Families are often unable to take their children to doctors and hospitals on the right time or on a regular basis so that they continue to suffer and their illnesses often get worse or even cause additional complications due to improper or delayed treatment. Furthermore, children often recover from various diseases without any medical treatment. Also many children acquire major diseases in early life that give major harmto their educational and work careers. Inaddition to medicine, medical tests and medical equipment the poor find it most difficult to afford paying for hospitals in cases o f emergency and surgery. The case studies clearly indicate that many families, even some relatively prosperous ones, were economically ruined after major health disasters, especially before the introduction o f the green card system. Thus, family property such as houses, tractors, household goods and gold were sold for paying the doctors, hospitals, pharmacists and medical laboratories. Even so, cases were reported where the poor families unable to pay for the hospital expenses could not claim the bodies o f their dead. As a matter o f fact, the poor families have the greatest financial difficulty, only next to providing food, in paying for the medical treatment expenses o f their sick members. One salient aspect o f poverty i s that the poor people do not get adequate and sufficient medical treatment, as many have to c onfine themselves with temporary pain relief even in the case o f major andor chronic diseases. Hence, the poor suffering from 125  illnesses such as bronchitis, migraine, allergy, hernia, rheumatism, injuries in accidents, anemia, high blood pressure, diabetics, gynecological diseases, etc. do not take any medicine or other medical precautions. Doctors are c onsulted only in cases o f chronic heavy pain, bleeding, serious injuries in accidents and surgical complaints. After the diagnosis o f the disease they do not have their regular controls and do not take medicine regularly in order to avoid the expenses for these. Hence, the poor suffer not only from painbut the diseases that have become chronic, and these create negative side effects and lead to major complications. Health problems become the main focus o f everyday life often making not only the sick individuals, instead the whole family both unhappy inlife and inefficient inwork. Poverty in this sense creates a vicious circle, where low-income, social insecurity, vulnerability and illhealth mutually reinforce each other. The green card system that has been introduced in 1996 has indeed been one o f the most dramatic changes in the lives o f the people who have not been covered by any insurance scheme. The poor patients have very wide access to the green card though not all green card holders are poor people, The total number o f green card holders have increased to eleven million by the end o f the year 2001. Since the green card i s given to single individuals those members o f the poor families who do not suffer from a major health problem do not always get it. Inaddition, some who have become card users inthe past fail to renew it every year as they cannot afford the expenses for travel, photo and gettinga residence registration from the headmen. Incase o f major accidents and serious illnesses that require expensive treatment the green card has provided access to hospitals for many poor families. Many among the green card holders have reported that their family members were able to stay in the hospital for months after the surgery had taken place by paying only very little money for the hospital. On the other hand, the green card system didnot prove so e fficient inproviding access t o hospitals inthe c ase o f more routine health problems as the patients often fail to get sufficient care from doctors and the hospital personnel. Also, in cases o f serious injuries and surgical treatment the green card holders complain about the difficulties involved ingetting the s ick t o the nearby hospital which may not always be in the same town and the expenses for X-ray, medical tests, equipment and medicine which are not provided as part o f the green card service. The poor people who suffer from illhealth have great difficulty in providing the medicine and paying for the expensive medical tests. It i s possible to identify four different modes o f access to medicine, two o f which are institutional and the other two both private and personal. The first institutional method is the endorsement o f the prescriptions by the SSF. Families often complain that they have to pay for transport to go to the SSF offices and they cannot always get their prescription approved. The second method, in wide practice, i s to find an acquaintance with insurance coverage to get the prescription approved by his hidher own doctor. It i s a well-established fact that many doctors do write false prescriptions to help those who are desperate. The interview data clearly indicates the existence o f a huge subsidy to the uninsured poor by the two major insurance institutions, that i s the Retirement Fundand the Social Insurance Institution. In the cases o fboth institutional modes, the poor have to pay ten percent o f the prescription costs and often many cannot afford even this amount. Those who are denied access or cannot immediately reach to such sources rely on informal social networks to get hold o f 126  the required medicine. The relatives and neighbors tend to contribute significantly to the medical expenses, mainly in emergency cases while close relatives help more regularly. The general practice i s one where the poor families try to combine all these sources. However, it emerges very clearly from the interview data that even those who use the most efficient strategies cannot always provide regular access to medicine as many have mentioned that even inthe case o f major diseases and health problems they are able to get only part o f the medicine they need. Thus, even those w h o have chronic heart, kidney, liver and lung diseases and suffer from high blood pressure can take their medicine only occasionally. The medical centers have important functions inproviding health services for the poor. These would include routine public health services such as taking care o f children's vaccinations, making injections, checking blood pressure, treating infectious diseases, disinfecting cuts and wounds and doing various routine controls. Before the introduction o f the medical centers the poor say that they had rarely seen doctors or medical experts for such purposes. Furthermore, the doctors diagnose serious diseases in the medical centers and direct their patients to the major hospitals. Finally, the medical centers provide birth control and family planning information and services for the women who otherwise would have no access such services. On the other hand, complaints about the medical centers were also common. These would typically involve the absence o f doctors and sometimes nurses for days, the limited range o f the services provided and the inability o f these institutions to provide access to medical tests and medicine. Recently there has also been a rise inthe numbers o f not only the medical centers but also o f private clinics. Although the poor have to pay for the private clinics, what makes such institutions so convenient i s easy access due to their proximity and the simple ness o f their bureaucracy. In the case o f the private clinics in the squatter housing neighborhoodstreatment i s relatively cheap and this enables the poor to gather cash from close associates in order to see doctors. Private channels are used frequently to avoid difficult access to government hospitals, the long waiting lists and the inadequate care they would receive there. Working men emphasize that they obtain only casualjobs on a daily or short-term basis and they fear losing their jobs waiting for treatment ingovernment hospitals for hours and days. Then the whole family would be deprived o f a subsistence income. Women tend to go to the hospitals more in the urban areas and the availability o f the green card in the past five years have tended to increase this possibility. One immediate consequence i s that the number o f hospital born has increased. In giving birth at home women were helped by their experienced neighbors, midwives and the nurses in the medical center. Almost all women in the poor households have reported that they have lost children under five and the majority o f these were before the age o f two. The most frequent causes o f child death were cited as epidemics, diarrhea andheart disease. Irrespective o f se x and other sociological v ariables almost a11men and w omen emphasize that they regret having so many children indicating that a maximum o f two or 127  three would have been the ideal. They also mention that they either were not informed about family planning or did not fully recognize the consequences o f having too many children. As a matter of fact, many among the poor women have mentioned that they began to use birth control techniques even without consulting their husbands, thanks to the availability such facilities in the immediate vicinity. On the other hand, they all indicate that having an abortion i s very expensive. Many on the other hand told that they have resorted to traditional miscarriage practices. The poor families show very little interest in seeing that their children have their vaccines on the right time and especially menhave very little knowledge about what is happening to their children with regard to routine health controls and vaccination. However almost all mothers report that all their children are properly vaccinated and always free o f change in the schools and in the medical centers despite the fact that they themselves show very little care. The poor get big help from close associates and various benevolent people when they have major health problems inthe family. The cash contributions can be from single individuals or from a group o f relatives and neighbors who collect money among themselves. In several cases such groups were able to raise more than two thousand dollars. Especially the close relatives, when they have the means, give large amounts o f money in cases o f major health problems and more occasionally buy their medicine on a regular basis. One o f the most important indications o f the strength o f informal solidarity networks among the poor i s the cash help that close associates make for the health expenses o f their poor relatives and friends. Friends, neighbors and relatives who would refuse to give loans to their poor associates on normal occasions tend to help willingly when they get seriously ill.As one o f the respondents has expressed, "people do help when they actually see things with their own eyes as inthe case o f a desperate or dying person". There were a number o f cases where sisters, brothers, uncles, cousins and other relatives took the patients to the hospital, paid for their treatment and met their expenses for medicine. Inthe villages, relatives and neighbors help by means o f taking the patients to the town hospital with their own tractors and cars. Helping the sick people invigorates even loose social networks by means of mobilizing the members o f a community. The people who benefit most from such benefits are the chronically sick and the widowed women. The rural-to-urban migrants often take the responsibility o f sending medicine home to their poor rural relatives and take them to hospital and provide food and accommodation for them when they come to city. Finally, it needs to be emphasized that, cases where the bosses inthe work place and other affluent middle class people made significant cash contributions to the poor for various health expenses were frequent. The differences between the benefit dependent extremely poor families who are either unemployed or casually employed on the one hand and the poor who earn regular income and have insurance coverage in terms o f access to health care and medical treatment on the other are considerable. The poor who are covered by the Social Insurance Institution (SII) and the Retirement Fund (RF) have free access to health care. The proportion o f hospital born children i s higher among those who have insurance and they tend to have more children who survived. Furthermore, as the regular income 128  eaming poor live inthe relatively older, established and consolidatedneighborhoods they are more likely find a medical center in their immediate vicinity. They see doctors more frequently and follow medical treatment more regularly. Most significant o f all bypaying twenty percent commission on the original price they can buy all the medicine prescribed by the doctor and therefore especially the chronically sick do not suffer from the absence o f medicine. However, in cases o f big expenses for medicine, i.e. cancer medicine, the poor families have difficulty inpaying the commission charge. The health insurance systems and specifically the SSI however, do not always function very efficiently and this causes major health care problems for the regular income eaming poor too. The poor themselves identify three major problem areas. First, they typically encounter long waiting lists and find it very difficult to see doctors on the right time. Even more significant however is the fact that they cannot always get proper medical care as the doctors would often refuse to look after the patients who have not visited them in their private clinics. Doing this would generally cost the patient an additional twenty-forty dollars. Although almost all the insurance covered poor have reported visiting private doctors it i s not possible to say something decisive on the frequency o f such incidents on the basis o f interview data. The third major problem area i s identified as surgery; in this particular case, the surgeons would ask for an additional charge for the surgery, which, the patients call the `knife fee'. Since this illegal practice would cost a minimum o f two hundred dollars many patients told that they had to delay their surgery. All the three factors mentioned above--long waiting lists, private visits and illegal surgery costs--made even those poor families having insurance coverage spend money for private health care. The Effectsof the EconomicCrisis The crisis was just in start while conducting in-depth interviews inthe context o f the Project on Social Risk Reduction and thus it was impossible to reach clear assessments o f its effects. On the other hand, the field survey conducted in the spring o f 2002 to investigate the problems and coping strategies o f families covered by SSF assistance and others remaining out o f this scheme presents clearer information on the consequences o f the crisis. The discussion to follow, which deals with some consequences o f the crisis, i s primarily based on data providedby this second survey. We may assert first o f all that the recent crisis led to considerable shrinkage in those sectors generating temporary, seasonal and daily wage-based employment for those not having any regular income. In the construction sector, the leading one in providing jobs for the poor, the volume o f activities reduced and demand for labor fell considerably as a result o f the fall in demand and decline in public investments. Specific manifestations o f this trend include difficulty o f findingjobs inthe sector, shorter periods o f employment and decline in real wage rates. Many families making their subsistence from this sector state that while they used to repay their wintertime debts by working in constructions when the sector had its high season, they are now facing the problem o f not being able to repay at all as a result o f expanding unemployment inthe sector. 129  "How things go inconstruction sector? Daily wage i s 5 million TL. The situation is not good at all this year. Not much job and even ifyou find one you work for last year's rate as we did. For how long did you work? Four months. Could you save some money? Very little. Rightnow Ican't pay myrent. What i s your job? Construction. Ifthese is any work today, I'lldo it. What i s different from the last year? It was better. There were jobs to do inconstructions. Not this year. The contractor does not start a new buildingwithout selling his flats. For how long do you work inconstructions when there i s ajob? It depends. Mostly 3 to 5 months. N o permanent job. You have to wait from one job to another. Ihavesixdaughtersandfoursons.Allunemployed.MysoninIstanbulhashad no job for the last six months and so he couldn't send me any money. H o w can he?He can't feed himselfinthe first place. `What do you do? H o w do you make your living? IgooutandworkinconstructionsifIfindajob.Mywifeiswashingstairsoutin some firm. She earns 40 to 50 million or sometimes 100 million. She from time to time goes to do cleaning etc. inother people's houses. And Iwork inconstructions. But it i s no good this year. What i s your daily wage? 5 million. Shrinkingdemand and loss o f clients is also true inall varieties of street vending, one o f the leading channels o f employment. This i s stated plainly by a simit seller who can sell less now; by a porter who closes his day without taking even one job because o f decline in trade, by a vegetable seller forced to quit his job; and by a teahouse keeper receiving almost no order insome days. "Iusedtoserve 1000-1400glassesofteaaday.Ihadtorunaroundtoserve people. My assist used to tell me '15 glasses to that section and 10 to other...' Now I serve only one glass at a time.' Unemployment became common among people working in other places and sending remittances to their families back home. Demand for paid domestic work in which many women were involved also fell as a result o f unemployment spreading among middle class families. Since the supply o f labor rose as a result o f ever hardening economic conditions, intensified competition among work demanders pushed real wages down. 130  The most important problem o f the poor with regular income is their declining purchasing power that follows the downward trend in real wages. It is stated that it has now become more difficult to get extra income through a second job since there i s congestion o f job seekers in lines o f activity that used to provide second jobs. Another striking fact is that many people not wanting to lose their jobs for good are ready to accept the offer o f employees to work for a time without being paid. This kind o f work without pay may go on for weeks and even for months in some cases. Another outcome o f the crisis is that even qualified workers are ready to take on any ordinary work offered at rates paid to plain workers. Meanwhile, those who are not actually satisfied with their jobs and would think o f switching under normal circumstances state that they now have no other choice but to remain inspite o f all adverse circumstances. Addressing the issue at family or household level, it is observed that "work rich" families who used to have many members working prior to the crises have now turned into "work poor" with only one or even none employed member. Secondly, total working time and income derived also tends to decline. Unemployment and income loss lead to lower consumption levels and living standards in families. "Can your children help you? No. How could they? Each one is in a critical situation. Ican't ask them for help anyway. One o f my daughters i s trying to live on a widow pension from her husband. And my other son-in-law has no permanent job. May daughter does knitting and lacework. My son got married and only recently paid his debts for wedding. H e has a five-month old baby and spends 10 million in3 days to buybaby food. Imean they are o f no help to us. So we feed ourselves if we can find something or stay hungry, Ibeg your pardon, ifwe can't. Inthese times you can't go around and complain to others about your situation. `How was your situation earlier? Better. My daughter used to have a job at the harbor. It was much better when I was working. You make a living ifyou can find ajob and work. Iused to earn 5 million a day before taking thisjob inCukobirlik and Iam still working for 5 million a day. Imean there is no increase inpay. They say `that i s it, you either work or not.' Iknow a family. The man i s from Malatya and has no job for two years. For months they ate potato even without bread. Itold him to apply for ajob. H e was there in queue but so exhausted and humiliated that he returned back. Those who used to be better off before crisis now feel humiliated when desperately looking for job in queues. My little son came one day and said he saw some children dipping pieces o f bread into water sweetened with sugar and eating. H e wanted the same, but there was no sugar at the house at that time.' Debts o f families increase while the proportion o f their income to debts is steadily falling and their credibility i s thus rapidly waning. Families who used to make shopping inbulkfrom wholesalers at lower pricescannow go out to local grocers for much smaller quantities at higher prices. Meanwhile, local grocers stop their on-credit sales to the poor inthe face of higher risk of not beingrepaid at all. Excessive debt is now becoming an important problem for families with regular income as well. 131  The most important indicator o f increased difficulties in subsistence is restrictions put on the consumption o f such basic items as food, clothing, cleaning materials and other household items. Most frequently expressed complaints include not being able to shop in marketplaces, renew gas tube, find money for fuel and for repairing some necessary goods. All poor families interviewed state that they considerably cut from their food after the crisis. Families with regular incomes who used to buy durable consumer goods and other household items on installments state that they have largely stopped this kindo f shopping. A common tendency is to pay electricity, water and telephone bills later then they are due or not to pay at all at the expense o f beingphased out o f service. Some examples are cited below: "They don't cut o f f your electricity right away. They w ait for two bills, which makes 4 months. Maybe Ican find ajob and pay my bill infour-month time. "My water is cut off for three months now. Icouldn't pay the bill. They also took away the meter. Imanage by taking water from neighbors. "Ican'tpayinmanycases.Orpayonlywithafine.IpaywhenIhavejobor borrow from a friend." There i s now more pressure on benefit dependent families to take their children out o f school. Most frequently expressed complaint i s having to send their children to school w ithout a 1unchb ag and their children's 1ack o f c oncentration ontheir c ourses because o f not having enough to eat. It is observed that there are more families saying `it will help us if he (she) drops the school.' Families with regular income also have complaints about schooling expenses, but these complaints are related more to their difficulty incovering the costs o f private courses taken for university admittance. Finally, the crisis also causes delays and insufficiencies in medical care due to diminishing incomes and resources. Another important heading i s the loosening and weakening o f social solidarity in almost all respects. It i s stressed that even limited aid usedto come from middleclasses i s diminishing. What is more important, assistance from close friends, relatives and neighbors i s also becoming less and rare. It i s frequently stressed that everyone is only after his or her own interests, no care for others and egoism i s becoming widespread. One poor household head says, `what else people can do? This crisis hit both the rich and the poor.' It i s also stressed that a major tendency by families i s isolation from the rest o f the community. Some o f the poor state that cut off phones have broken them apart from their relatives living elsewhere, they abstain from being present in weddings because o f the costs o f presents and fits that must be given; and they have cancelled their plans to visit their hometowns or village this year. Finally the crisis also has the effect o f further aggravatingtensions between family members. 132  "Well, ifthis economic situation goes on, will you be able to keep your children under your control? Ican't.Theymaybeattractedbybadways.IfIcan'tprovidefortheirneedsthey turntheir faces off. `How were you received inyour community before the crisis? One or two years ago Icould share things with others even if Ihad some problems. The community could support me. It i s not possible today. Everyone is in difficulty'. `IfIgo out andsit inacoffeehouse with friendsIwillbeembarrassedwithout any penny in my pocket. So Isay it is better to stay home. Isay instead o f paying 200- 300,000 TL for tea outside, I'llhave it home with my family'. `They say, `Eskigehir i s the cradle o f civilization.' It is a nice place indeed, but we are out o f civilization now. We have no social activity. Going to a picnic with family requires a car. Let's say you go there on foot, but you will see other having their barbecues. Children would want that. So what should Ido? Begmeat from others?" The Family and SocialExclusion Poverty i s a major source o f tension and conflict in the family. Inthe first place, poverty threatens the hegemony o f patriarchal values and the patriarchal authority o f the male household head in the family. The inability o f the male household to deliver the needs o f the membersthat is, his failure to meet the requirements o f his role as the bread winner inthe family creates negative attitudes towards him on part o f both the wife and the children. Men complain about never ending arguments and quarrels in the family while women, especially the young, suffer from frequent battering by their husbands.The extended periods o f unemployment when men spend most o f their time at home tend to aggravate tension and violence in the family as men sitting idle meddle into domestic affairs while women criticize them for not looking for work and not bringingan income. Some wives criticized their husbands for spending money on cigarettes while their children virtually starved. In some cases serious male violence against women were witnessed. In one occasion the angry husband had stubbed a knife at the back her wife whereas in others women reported having miscarriages after beaten badly by their husbands. Men on the other hand accuse their wives o f always asking for this and that without understanding the real scope o f their desperation. More than one husband have mentioned that instead o f battering their women they do violence against their own body when they get fi-ustrated and angry. This would involve breaking window glasses, hitting their heads on the walls and cutting their own bodies. Among the poorest families major psychological disorders on part o f both the husbands and wives were common. Other families, and sometimes even those who had major disputes among themselves have emphasized that they strongly support each other and do their best to endure all suffering and hardships together. They say they do this for the sake o f children in order to be good role models for them. 133  In the case of the regular income earning families the male household head maintains his role as the main breadwinner inthe family. His authority as the head o f the household i s more established and on this basis he would demand more obedience and respect for himself from other family members. In the urban context, women begin to assume a more active role in food shopping, going to the weekly markets and the grocers, though not usually on their own, as well as organizing the everyday expenses o f the household budget. Furthermore, the women in these families show greater interest in dealing with the education o f the children, as this tends to become the primary goal o f the family. Poverty isolates the poor from society. The benefit dependent poor tend to minimize and often they would try to avoid their social relations with friends, neighbors and relatives, as they feel ashamed o f their deprived situation and their dependence on other people. They think that they are perceived as poor and helpless people by others and therefore deeply embarrassed o f their existing status inthe community. Mentell that they often find themselves locked up at home being even unable to visit the local coffee shop occasionally. This situation i s well explained by a mid-aged casual worker in Malatya who says, `my friends invite me to the coffee house but since Icannot reciprocate to their offers Ifeel let down, defeated in life and therefore very sad indeed'. Men who feel themselves excluded from the community try to hide themselves from others often running away into places where nobody would recognize them. It was even more dramatic to hear some among the very poor saying that their shameful position in society even prevents them going to the mosque for the prayer. Since Islam emphasizes practicing belief with the community, poverty it can be argued distances poor men from the holy community o f Islamic believers (the umma) and in a sense from religion itself. The village poor too emphasize that they see themselves as isolated from the village folk while rural-to-urban migrants report that having lived in the city for many years they know nothing about the rest o f the city, its center and the lives o f the people who live in the apartment housing areas. On the other hand, the poor tend to espouse the view that they do not see themselves as the citizens o f the country thus implying a particularly weak link between themselves as individuals who are legally the members o f a political community on the one hand, and the state on the other. Inother words, the city i s seen as a place that i s not known and lived. Inthe words o f a poor man inAdana, `the city is my unlived childhood, youth, happiness and life'. The most dramatic expression o f the exclusion o f the very poor this time not only from religion, state and society but from everyday life came from a chronically poor person in Istanbul, who said, `Brother, Iam not actually present in this world. Only that, it i s my picture that appears there but Iam not even aware o f its presence. Ido not visit anyone and Ido not speak to anyone. H o w can one exist without having any relations with others?' Poverty i s also a cause o f low trust among individuals in society. The poor despite the fact that they receive considerable help from other persons express their feelings o f deep mistrust o f the people around them and the society in which they live. Almost unanimously, they would assert that they trust in God. Very few however say that they invest trust in government, while none mention that they have trust in their associates. The major explanation for this highly negative attitude is the piecemeal and irregular 134  nature o f the benefits they receive from acquaintances and their personal dependence on them that hurt their feelings and pride and undermine their self-esteem. Almost all respondents have stressed that poverty i s a source o f deep resentment, embarrassment and guilt in the community. Dependence on others many say is a painful experience that makes a person feel like being crushed. As asking for help hurts their masculine pride, men instead make their wives go to ask for favors from others. Both men and women mention that they suffer from sleepless nights, feeling depressed, anxiety about the future, and a general mood o f pessimism to find themselves in an almost permanent state o f psychological crisis. Many would typically say that their problems and hardships in life would come to an end only w ith their death, reflecting their genuine desire for committing suicide. A poor householdhead inIstanbul expressed his despair inthe following way; `WhenIfeel let down inlife, Iwish Igather my whole family in a room, get a hand grenade, blow it up and save us all from our suffering and torture in this world'. Yet, the most vivid account o f the psychology o f poverty came from a disabled man in Adana who said, `surviving on benefits from the alien i s no living'. Whereas the extremely poor mention that they cannot always attend the funerals and weddings o f their associates because they cannot afford the expenses, the poor who earn regular income take part in such important ceremonial gatherings more frequently. The weddings would involve giving gifts mainly in the form o f gold and even the smallest piece o f gold, the `quarter', costs approximately fifteen dollars. Participation in these events is an important manifestation o f friendship and solidarity. The benefit dependent poor who cannot always go to the funerals in distant places as well as to the weddings are seriously isolatedfrom their community o f friends andrelatives. Complaints about the lack o f compassion among associates, intimate concern about each other's difficulties and a genuine desire to help those in need are quite common among the regular income eaming poor too. A general tendency i s to explain all this by means o f absence o f time and money. Also, people are seen as concerned only about their problems and therefore as selfish and greedy. The close relatives it i s emphasized tend to adapt a highlyreserved attitude when they meet each other inorder to immunize themselves against demands for loans and other kinds o f favors that would come from the other side. Some have said that they do not visit most o f their relatives at all and that their children do not know them even by name. Thus, families are said to turn inward to their own little world, as social ties tend to weaken and the kinship community fragments. Some o f the respondents emphasized that the economic crisis has aggravated this situation. Coping Strategies Coping strategies resorted to by poor families are addressed in this section under three major headings as those based on informal channels, market mechanisms and government interventions. 135  Informal channels include the migration o f families or family members t o find new income sources; increasingthe number o f employed householdmembers to improve family budget; child employment; investments in various assets including houses and urban plots, and retums from the sale o f such assets in times o f material difficulty; family, including the extended type; utilization o f solidarity and assistance networks as sources o f social capital made up o f relatives, fellow townsmen and religious communities; and restriction o f consumption. As a coping strategy, migration is essentially a measure resortedbythe rural poor. Infact, the majority ofthe urbanpoor consist ofthose who have moved inbig cities after observing their means o f rural subsistence challenged more and more, but not having been able to find regular employment in cities or lost a significant part o f their accumulated wealth there as a result o f some unfortunate events. A significant part o f those still remaining inrural settlements are persons deprived o f their chances o f mobility for such reasons as old age, illiteracy or disability. It i s particularly due to this fact that no rural families were observed to be makingplans for urban migration. There are also some rural poor temporarily leaving their villages for seasonal agricultural works. What i s more important, children o f the urban poor at their teens are employed in labor-intensive industries or ininformal sector innearby towns and cities. It can be assumed that some o f them will move to cities, after their military service, either alone or by taking their families together. Although there are some among the urban poor in serious difficulty occasionally talking about retumto their villages, it i s difficult to say that there are families engaged in specific plans to do so. A family not finding any support or jobs inIstanbul retumedback to Bingo1where they came from. In another example, a family moved from one city to another uponbeinginformed by their relatives about the availability o fjobs. As a subsistence strategy, migration gained importance within the last fifty or forty years in the context o f movement from rural areas to cities and from smaller cities to metropolitan centers. Giventhat they have at least the minimummeans for mobility, it can be assumed that poor rural families who want to improve their economic status in short and medium term would move to thriving industrial areas, regions where tourism promise employment opportunities, from economically stagnant inner regions to coastal zones with outward and dynamic economies and to metropolis. This kind o f mobility and movement i s further facilitated by the fact that majority o f rural families in Turkey have their relatives and fellowmen in almost all regions o f country on whom they can rely for some assistance and resources. At household level, maximizing the number o f household members in employment comes to fore as the most important coping strategy. According to in-depth interviews conducted with benefit dependent poor, the average number o f persons working is 1.5 for households. That means, these households have at least one, in fact more than one person employed in this or that way. Thus we can say that even in cases where household head i s unemployed, other members from the same householdjoin the labor market and work for income. Nevertheless, the most important problem faced by 136  such households i s that these works are often low-paid, irregular and short-term. Inmany cases, household members with low educational background and no significant skill can find only temporaryjobs inthe extremely marginal areas o f the informal sector. However limited, the leading sectors in employment generation include agricultural activities, construction, street vending, cleaning works and garbage picking. Majority o f persons in households declared as "employed" do agricultural works that take at most two weeks a year, work as porters to make a living for just one week in return for a month's work, provide their unskilled labor to construction works or sell goods in streets under the risk o f not finding even one buyer a day. As t o w omen, they are observed inagricultural works or indomestic services, home-based embroidery and carpet weaving as well as preparing some foodstuffs for market. Shoe shining, street vending or apprenticeship are among works done by children, sometimes invacations and sometimes by not going to school. It is possible to say that urban families are better positioned t o supply more members t o 1abor market compared to rural settings. Increasing the number o f members employed i s a way that i s frequently resorted to even by poor households having regular income. We observe that in such families where at least one memberhas regular income, the number o f persons employed averages to 1.5. While in60 percent o f households there is only one person employed, the number o f employed persons i s 2 for 20 percent, and 3 for another 20 percent o f households. In each o f these categories, at least one person i s employed throughout the month and at least for minimum wage. The fields o f employment include wage work in public or private sector, construction works, industrial employment in small and medium-scale enterprises or big industrial plants, taking care o f apartment blocks or orchards as well as such self employment channels as running groceries and tea-houses, repair works and street vending. Some inthis category state that they seek extra income by doing suchjobs as street vending at weekends. Working wives, on the other hand, are mostly engaged in domestic s ervices, t aking c are o f s ick p ersons, cleaning works andhome-based w orks upon orders. Extension o f compulsory education from 8 to 12 years raised the minimumage in employment from 12 to 15. The rate o f school enrolment for the last three-year part o f basic education rose to 91 percent in 2001, indicating a significant fall in the number o f children employed throughout the year. It is, however, important to consider that the rate o f schooling remains lower than this average for the children o fpoor families. Children enrolled to school work mostly in summer vacations and especially at weekends in urban environments. These are mostly o f seasonal type lasting for few weeks in rural areas and casual and low-paid fields o f informal sector in urban centers. Those who work inthe age interval 15-20 that corresponds to the period after compulsory schooling and before military recruitment are engaged mainly in construction works, works insmall enterprises and casual works inthe informal sector. The fact that there i s a working child, although irregularly, in every 4 families indicates that children's contribution to family budget i s quite limited and also irregular. Participation o f girls to 137  labor force i s even more limited than that o f boys. Since there is less tolerance for the employment o f girls as domestic servants than married women, girls' participation to labor force remains limitedto such home-based activities as weaving. As to investments in assets, the basic asset other than house consists o f durable consumer goods and other items at home. The striking fact about these goods and items, especially in the case o f benefit dependent poor, i s that they are mostly outmoded and also, as observed particularly inrefrigerators and TV sets, not inworking condition since they cannot be repaired because o f material constraints. Household items are quite limited interms o f both types and numbers.Many o f these items that cannot be sold out have been either received as gift or purchased second hand at very low prices. In sum, it i s difficult for benefit dependent poor to say that they have cash-convertible assets inthe form o fhouseholditems. One basic difference between families with regular income and benefit dependent poor in terms o f living standards i s that the former group largely has such household goods as refrigerator, washing machine, TV set, telephone, vacuum cleaner, dishwasher and furniture. These goods are mostly new and first hand although some cases o f second hand use are also observed. Although the most common way i s to purchase such goods in installments, taking them as gifts from family members and relatives is also widely observed. A great majority o f families are still in debt for these goods. The results o f interviews indicate that there are very few cases o f selling out household goods by families with regular income inthe first months o f the crisis. Nevertheless, some families state that they bought them earlier and it would be too difficult to do that under present circumstances. Evenif selling out household goods i s not a common practice for the time being, the survey shows that families with regular income have some assets that can be sold out for subsistence in case the crisis gets deeper and periods o f unemployment gets longer. Among the poorest households, only a minority own the houses they live in. They mostly live in rented houses or in houses they are allowed to occupy by their relatives without paying any rent. As to those who own houses, their market value is extremely low for such reasons as smallness, low quality and location in some undesirable neighborhoods. The sale o f such property i s made further difficult by the absence o f deed and construction permit. Incase these houses occupied by crowded families are sold out, the subsistence o f such families will be further challenged because o f moving expenses and rents to be paid. Houses in rural settlements, on the other hand, have some size, but despite the existence o f many houses abandoned by their owners who have moved to cities it is difficult t o t alk about a rural housingmarket. Lnc onclusion, it is again t 00 difficult to say that benefit dependent poor have assets such as house that can be converted into cash intimes o f serious difficulty. Meanwhile, those regular income poor with their own houses try to enlarge these houses by annexes when they have some accumulated cash or able to borrow some money. For house owners, house may be an asset that can be converted into cash in extremely difficult circumstances, but in many cases it i s too difficult to convert a 138  gecekondu house readily into c ash due t o the characteristics o f c orresponding housing market.For a family falling introuble by losing its income, it seems to be amore rational subsistence strategy to keep the house at hand and convert into cash other assets such as durable consumer goods. It is observed that poor families having a monthly income o f 100 to 300 million TL may be in debt disproportionate to their income, that is rising as high as 300 million TL to 1-2 billion. There is no family stating to be free o f any debt obligation. Furthermore, only few families state that their debt i s less than 100 million. Inno case i s this debtto a singleperson or agency. To the contrary, the strategy inthis field consists o f borrowing smaller amounts from different sources. In cases of cash loan, average amount o f debt varies from 20 to 150 million TL. There are, however, also cases where larger amounts o f money (several hundred million TL) are borrowed from relatively wealthier members o f extended family for such events as hospitalization, wedding or small capital investments. Debts o f poor families have a rising trend in time. For example, a person owing 20 million TL to someone takes a further loan o f 30 million TL, pays 20 million o f this to the first creditor and uses the rest for his needs. Beyond a certain limit, however, failure to repay makes it too difficult to find new sources and the person concemed loses his or her credibility. It i s the greatest fear o f debtors to fail to repay and be known as "fraud" or "swindler." Hence, families become more desperate and helpless as the amount o f their payables increases. Borrowing inc ash t akes place more b etween the members o f extended family, other closer relatives or infriendship groups. It i s because only such close circles take the risk o f extending credit in cash. For the borrower, there are the factors o f flexible and tolerant behavior expected from creditors, who are from close circles, if he or she delays repayment. What i s more important, in case repayment becomes impossible, the debtor does not suffer any significant loss o f prestige and credibility since the other party is a relative or close friend. The most important guarantee or credibility in the eyes o f creditors is the present status o f debtors as employed persons with regular income. Although debt in cash may be incurred in TL in some cases, the common practice i s to have this relation on the basis o f Dollar, DM or gold (coins or ornaments). There was only one case inwhich signingbills for interest was observed. The second major type o fborrowing is to provide for basic needs incredit. Grocer inneighborhood is the main channel where foodstuffs, cleaningmaterials and other basic needs are provided by. Inthis relationship, the grocer sells on credit to those who are able to repay their debts inregular intervals. Only in few cases families stated that their grocer did not provide this facility. Though not much comparable to grocers, there are also bakeries, greengrocers and butchers selling on credit. Those who want to buy clothes and household items on credit reach traders through some common acquaintances and place in a guarantee that they will repay. Families with regular income can buy all kinds o f durable consumer goods and furniture oncredit w ithmonthly installments by citing a common acquaintance as guarantor. The amount o f each installment increases with the income level o f families. 139  Another way i s to delay the repayment that is to be made inretumfor any service already utilized. The most common example is to delay rental payments for some months. There are o f course tensions with the landlord, as the period o f delay gets longer. In the case of the poorest families, however, landlords do not make much fuss about failure to pay rental. Delayedpayment o fbills for utilities including electricity, water and communication i s another way o f "credit use." Almost all poor families state that they resort t o this frequently. Credit inc ash manifests itself whenp ayment o f suchbills is undertaken by a relative. When extremely poor families are concemed, assistance from close relatives covers a portion o f household expenditures varying from one quarter to one half. This ratio gets higher inpoor households headed by single women. Since there can be no such case as extreme dependence to social assistance and benefits from the state, poor families are dependent to other families, in fact to more than one family at the same time. Some o f these charitable families live in the same neighborhood and others elsewhere. In the context o f present networks, there is some assistance amongst a group o f people, relatives, fellow townsmen and charity associations sharing the same neighborhood (Gokqe, 1993). There are very rare cases where a single person takes on full responsibility o f a household. In fact, these neighbors and relatives are not much better off than others. It should also be stressed that this support does not take place regularly and smoothly all the time. Moreover, assistance i s mostly inkindand insome cases inthe form o f undertaking to pay the bills and installments o f the poor family in question. Whereas this kindo f support and charities should take place inthe context o f reciprocity on equal terms, flow i s one-directional when extremely poor families are concerned. Obviously, this means that such families are recognized as dependent to others and not considered as fit for regular credit mechanisms. The fact that the poor generally have a tendency to underestimate the support and assistance they receive from relatives and others can be explained by four reasons. Firstly, benefit dependent poor are extremely exhausted and unhappy about their life conditions and consequently develop negative approaches as to the nature o f their relationship with friends, neighbors and relatives. This leads them to belittle the value o f benefits accorded by others. Secondly, families in extreme poverty have rather high expectations about benefits to come especially from close relatives. Hence, it i s considered that while helping those in want and acting altruistic is the duty o f human beings, what they actually receive falls extremely short o f their needs since they do not bring about a real improvement intheir situation. Thirdly, extremely poor people tend to conceal, as a strategy, what they receive unofficially. This derives from the thinking that persons assigned to check whether they are eligible for official assistance should not know what they unofficially get from others. Finally, poverty i s closely associated with personal failure. Since poverty o f a person instigates the feelings o f pity and scorn by others, the poor become the object o f assistance on the one hand, and "not credible" on the other. Among benefits received from relatives and others there i s almost everything that a poor family may need. Direct cash contribution or assistance i s relatively limited since 140  people in extremepoverty d o not c onstitute a reliable debtor c ategory inthis c ontext. Thus, what is observed more commonly is assistance in kind and taking over and covering s ome c ash needs. Examples include the following: Coverage o f expenses for such needs and events as food, clothing, medicine, health check up, funeral, w edding, circumcision, etc; provision o f a house, paying rent, buying cigarettes, payment o f electricity-water bills; payment o f installments for refrigerators, cassettes, T V sets, furniture, heating fuel, etc.; school expenses o f children; and maintenance and repair o f house. While in cash and in kind support by close relatives reaches relatively higher amounts, the support o f distant ties i s limited and mostly in kind. However, in cases where close relatives extend cash support, this goes to a specific member o f the household that i s household head. Assistance by neighbors generally takes the form o f responding to some urgent needs o f the poor. Examples include serving a cup o f soup, taking sick persons to hospital with a car, a bucket o f coal in very cold days, etc. Still, there are also cases where neighbors and fellow townsmen raise some hnds among themselves and extend larger support when there i s serious sickness or some disaster. In Turkey, sociological researches focusing on migration underline the importance o f support given to urban settlers by their ties back in rural areas.Hence, relatives in rural settlements s end them such foodstuffs as saltedmeat, milkproducts, ground wheat and dried fruits and vegetables (Karpat, 1976; Kartal, 1983; Iqduygu, Sirkeci and Aydingun, 1998). However, this kind o f support, though not to be overlooked totally, does not contribute much to both benefit dependent and regular income poor. Quite to the contrary, it i s possible to say that those in urban areas support their rural relatives more inboth incash and inkind assistance. In sum, it may well be asserted that flow o f resources from urbant o rural areas amounts t o more than the flow inreverse direction. Since people living ingecekondu areas have their houses closely located to their relatives and fellow townsmen, many families have at least few relatives or townsmen nearby to whom they can ask for help invarious matters (Demir, 1994; Aydogan, 1996). However, the majority o f the urban poor live inmixed neighborhoods where residents are from different social and geographical backgrounds. The poor themselves state that they enjoy more assistance from their new acquaintances c ompared to what is extended by their distant relatives and fellow townsmen. In this sense, for the majority o f the poor, proximity in space whether in urban or rural areas is important in terms o f mutual help and solidarity. The most important unit in terms o f assistance and mutual help i s what i s generally called "extended family mutual support network" (Duben, 1982). This network consists o f parents, grown up children and brothers and sisters o f parents who live in the same or different houses inthe same neighborhood or in different towns and villages. As stated eloquently by a respondent, "to sever ties with relatives i s to commit suicide." Although support i s observed mostly from the paternal line, solidarity among married sisters is especially strong. In fact, women state that they do not receive enough support 141  from their fathers and brothers. Widowed women, on the other hand, state that they receive significant help from the relatives o f their husbands. Meanwhile, disputes among family members are also common and even some o f the poor sever their ties completely with their close relatives. Insome cases assistance to relatives continues even if parties do not talk with each other. There are cases where relations with some relatives are fine while there is tension with others. There are mothers keep assisting their children not wanted by their husbands. In sum, in spite o f gradually increasing tensions and conflicts, the state o f being completely isolated from extended family i s a rather rare situation. Finally, a special note for women: Just like sick and disabled people who are incapable to work, women household heads have more chances than others to enjoy assistance from relatives and friends. First o f all, official authorities regard such women as those most in need and accordingly give priority to these women in extending assistance in the form o f fuel, food and covering the school expenses o f their children. From the angle o f relatives and neighbors too, widowed women are at the top o f the list o f those who should be helped. Helpingwidowed women with children i s considered as a major duty by close relatives. Mostly docile and passive intheir behavior, widowed poor women try to avoid any quarrel with their male relatives. They enjoy the status o f being worth o f assisting as long as they remain decent and faithful to the memory o f their deceasedhusbands. These women, apart from clothes, foodstuffs and contributions to the school expenses o f their children coming from closer circles, also receive inkind and in cash assistance from distant relatives and neighbors. Dominant religious and traditional values also foresee assistance to women in want and such women are not expected to work o ut o f home. Distinct from the c ase w ithmen, w omen are not criticized for not having any job. Poor women, in short, are regarded as persons deserving special protection and help as long as they conform to the dominant values in traditional society although they are inan extremely disadvantageous position inthe labor market. Helping people in want and extending loans to such people are essentially different orientations. Only those who have regular income, that is persons who can somewhat make a living are seen creditable. There are occasions in which relatives and friends refuse to give loans to those who are indeep need on the ground that repayment would be impossible. On the other hand, relatives and neighbors tend to support those who are desperately inneed for such reasons as sickness, disability or being widowed. The poor with regular income both help others and are helped by them. For example, a low-salaried civil servant in EskiSehir states that his working mates in the office consider himtoo poor and help, but he, as a good Muslim, transfers this assistance to the poor in his neighborhood. Also, relations o f mutual help are more developed among the poor who have regular income. In other words, these people borrow from others when they are in need, and give loans when they are better off. These kinds o f transactions are mostly carried out indollars. Loans are given for longterms and there are yet delays inrepayment. The poor with regular income may borrow from others for such spending as required in weddings, rental and durable consumer goods. As long as they 142  have accumulated cash, they may extend loans to their relatives for similar purposes. Additionally, many respondents state that they receive gifts from their relatives. These gifts include school uniforms and materials for children, kitchen utensils, carpets and even durable consumer goods. As to the last item, relatives undertake the down payment or some o f the installments that follow. One o f t he isues c ommonly discussedby the public is the effect o f e conomic crisis on informal solidarity networks. In this context, an important tendency can be summarized as follows. Since loss o f income and wealth puts both relatives and neighbors in a more difficult situation, the capacity o f each household to care for others has been significantly reduced and thus networks o f solidarity have weakened (Sonmez, 2001). Although this can be accepted as a general tendency, relatives and neighbors still keep s upporting others and, in spite o f 1essening assistance, s ocial s olidarity networks still remain though somewhat weakened. Assistance driven by religious motives is a highly politicized issue in the context o f Turkey. Consequently, even if a general question was put in interviews about assistance by Islamic political parties and communities, not much elaboration was made on the issue. It is frequently asserted that Islamic groups c arry out intensive activities targeting low-income groups in terms o f assistance in health, education and social welfare. One striking conclusion o f the present survey, however, i s that Islamic communities are not very successful in reaching benefit dependent families who constitute the poorest section o f the society. This means that the poorest ten percent o f the population largely remains out o fthe reach o f Islamic networks. As a matter o f fact, it was families with regular income, having difficulty in keeping their high-school age children in school who talked relatively more about Islamic charity. Nevertheless, aid in the form o f almsgiving i s quite common especially in Ramadan and the poor state that they benefit from this aid, which consists o f a grant o f 5 to 10million TL. As touched upon indetail throughout the discussion, consumptionreduction is the major coping strategy adopted by the poor. This reduction takes place simultaneously in many fields, food being in the first place. More specifically, consumption reduction includes abstaining from any expenditure on clothing, not making rental payments, not making any spendingfor the repair and maintenance o f the house and for any household item, intermittent use o f gas tubes and, what is more important, avoidance o f health expenditure even when medical care i s necessary. Consumption reduction strategy i s adopted in a s omewhat different way by families with regular income. These families minimize the consumption o f such items as meat, milk and fruits, which they find expensive, and s ave on the quantity and t ype o f basic food items that they c an afford more easily. While spending on clothes i s minimized, priority i s given to open bazaars where prices are lower. Families having more durable consumer goods and furniture try to extend the period o f their duration by using them less intensively. Gecekondu houses o f lower rental payment are preferredagainst apartment flats having regular infrastructure and constructionpermit. There i s also austerity in the use o f heating fuel. Although basic school needs o f children are met, no investment i s made to special courses that train 143  children for university admittance tests. Finally, health expenditures are also kept at minimuminwhat is regarded as ordinary ailments. Borrowing from banks and selling o f financial assets, which we can consider as market based coping strategies, are hardly seen among benefit dependent poor and this strategy i s not very significant for families with regular income either. Those in below poverty line who have bank credit cards are limited to public servants in the lowest echelon. Among those interviewed, only one public servant, one wage-worker and one small enterprise owner stated that they hadbank loan to be repaid. Gold items kept by women i s the only financial asset that the poor can possess. Hence, risk management by investing in financial assets i s out o f question. There are some among the poor who state to have no gold item at all while some others say that they converted such items into cash in the past. As a matter o f fact, the poor state that they cannot even go to weddings to avoid the necessity o f giving present and give only food and clothing as present when they go. There are some women stating to have some jewelry, which they would convert only in case o f health needs. Absence o f any other financial asset i s proven by the fact that many families under poverty line are in debt for varying amounts starting from 200 dollars up to 1-2 thousand. These are o f course not due to formal finance institutionsbut to relatives, friends and local grocers. As t o market based coping strategies, w e can consider formal s ector in-service training, investment inmultiple financial assets, disability and accident insurance, selling o f financial assets and borrowing from banks. Among these, formal sector in-service training that may have its contribution in terms o f risk reduction i s not very relevant to Turkey for the poor under poverty line. First o f all, the benefit dependent poor remain almost exclusively out o f the formal sector. As to the majority o f poor with regular incomes, they work in small and medium size labor-intensive enterprises that remain out o f the scope o f collective bargaining and unionization. It i s hardly possible that labor- intensive enterprises that cover workers through informal mechanisms and readily lay them off when downsizing is needed would go for such formal responsibilities as re- training and its costs. There may be some among young civil servants on the lowest echelon below poverty line who want to be promoted in their work by completing a higher-level school on their own means. However, this very poor section prefers public service firstly for its rather comprehensive social security system. Benefits o f public employment include access to public health services, coverage by social security institutions, green card, disaster relief, and Social Solidarity Fund transfers. The poor benefit from public health interventions mostly through services extended by health centers and immunization campaigns. Children are immunized regularly at health centers, schools or mobile clinics even if their parents do not monitor the process. In interviews, all families stated that their children are fully immunized. Meanwhile, apart from their routine health services, health centers also play an important role in family planning. Similarly, Maternal Health Centers provide information and 144  materials in contraception and give antenatal and postnatal preventive and curative services. There are also health centers engaged inpreventive activities against epidemics. Interviews point out that these services are utilized more in urban settlements than in rural areas. Among the poorest ten percent o f the population, there i s a section o f 11percent covered by the Bag-Kur pension system and another 11.5 percent among the vulnerable group that constitutes the lowest 35 percent o f the sample. These people pay their Bag- Kur premiums at lowest rates. Interviews with Bag-Kur retirees indicate that their monthly net pension varies from 120to 140 million TL. The most significant contribution o f the Bag-Kur system for those paying their premiums i s the coverage o f medical treatment and medicine expenses. Yet, in-depth interviews with those covered by the Bag-Kur system revealed that they had difficulty in regularly paying their premiums and some were in fact under penalty for stopping their payments. Incomes o f artisans, small traders and entrepreneurs have seriously declined especially after the deep economic crisis o f 2001 and it became virtually impossible for some to pay their Bag-Kur premiums. Earlier, these people usedto list their spouses, children and close relatives as employees in their workplaces and pay premiums for them too in order t o have them covered by the Bag-Kur system.N o w they are in trouble in paying their own premiums let aside those o f their family members and relatives. The SSK and Emekli Sandigi (Government Employees' Retirement Fund) members are mostly those families with regular income. Besides comprehensive health insurance, these two systems also provide accident insurance, retirement pensions and pensions to family membersincase o f the death o f the beneficiary. The quarterly 65 million TL old age pension is given to citizens over age 65 provided that they have no other income. Incases where there are two old age pensioners inthe same family, that is a wife and a husband, the total quarterly payment is 80 million TL. The disabled and those who have become incapable to work as a result o f an accident or illness are paid 35 million T L a month in case they document their situation by an officially issued health report. Such people may also benefit from green card, food relief and educational support ifthey have children at school age. We observe that in Turkey 1,194,500 families benefit from the disaster relief scheme o f the Social Security Fund (SSF). These families concentrate inthe provinces o f Bolu, Kocaeli and Sakarya. Since there was no in-depth interview in any o f these provinces, information about the outcomes o f related policies was derived from a family who had been given an apartment flat after Adana earthquake. The family stated that they had food, clothing and sheltering assistance from the State after the earthquake as well as monthly 10million TL incash in 1996. Another data in the context o f disaster relief i s in cash assistance o f 200 million TL to three poor families whose houses were damaged by flood in Mersin in 2001. Families usedthis aid for their basic needs including repairs intheir houses. 145  The field survey "Social Consequences o f Marmara Earthquake" conducted by the Sociology Department o f the METU after 1999 Marmara earthquake was based on 650 questionnaires and 40 in-depth interviews. This survey provides us some detailed information on disaster relief work carried out for the poor and all earthquake-stricken people losing much o f their wealth after the disaster. People were given tents immediately after the earthquake as well as three meals, clothing and fuel in their tent camps. Infrastructure problems faced in tent camps were largely eliminated with prefabricated houses and food aids continued while people were placed in these houses too. At the third stage, the public sector constructed houses for those whose houses were heavily and seriously damaged. These houses were built on the basis o f long-term low- interest credit and constructions w ere completed in2 002. Apart from S tate assistance, earthquake-stricken families also benefited from basic supplies (soap, blanket, toilet paper, underwear, footwear, etc.) provided by various national and foreign civil society organizations and were even able to pile stocks of these materials beyond their needs. The green card scheme launched in 1996 to provide health services to those not covered by SSK, Bag-Kur and ES (Government Employees' Retirement Fund) covers treatment, surgery and in-patient health care costs o f people. Prior to green card, families not covered by any health insurance scheme faced the risk o f losing their small accumulations or not being properly treated especially in cases o f surgery and chronic and/or heavy health problems. They are now able to cover not all but considerable part o f their treatment, surgery and in-patient care service expenses through green cards. Furthermore, the SSF covers a considerable part o f medicine, medical analysis and equipment needs o f patients. In this respect, it is possible to say that the greatest economic contribution o f the State to families not covered by any insurance scheme i s sharing o f health expenses o f poor families through green card and SSF. Even if poor families still make various expenditures throughout the process o f treatment mainly because o f some defects in the system, green card means that these families for whom health expenses constitute a major bulk in family budget compared to better off ones are now able to avoid a great part o f it. In 2001, the SSF spent about 20 million dollars in projects designed to give vocational training to the poor, help them start their own business and generate employment opportunities. These projects aiming at direct and long-term employment generation basically covers the provision o f starting c apital, equipment and machinery and materials for agricultural enterprises and handicrafts. A total o f 272,498 persons benefited from this assistance. However, since our interviews covered only one person stating to have benefited from this scheme, no detailed information could be obtained as to the content and consequences o f assistance. We observe that in 2001 the SSF transferred an amount just over 300 million dollars to 9,211,705 families. The numbers o f persons benefiting from free meal houses, food supplies and fuel were, respectively, 54,966, 760,163 and 412,944. Food aid generally made once a year may help families for couple o f weeks dependingon the size of the family concerned. Fuel aids on average provide for coal needs o f a family for a month in winter and this period may extend a little if it i s used in a saving manner. 146  Parents of 1,608,000 students who benefit from education aid spend this for educational expenses of their children and for some urgent needs. Among beneficiaries, the most populous category i s composed o f those benefitingfrom various health services. A family who enjoys all benefits except those in the field o f health gets an additional income equivalent to 7-8 dollars a month. For those who can also benefit from free meal services this additional income i s considerably higher. 147  REFERENCES Aydogan, F. (1996) 'Koyden Kente Goqun Ailenin Akrabalik ve Komguluk Iligkileri Uzerine Etkileri' Sosyoloji Dernegi (ed) II.Ulusa1 Sosyoloji Kongresi; Toplum ve Goq, Turkiye Cumhuriyeti Bagbakanlik Devlet Istatistik Enstitusu ve Sosyoloji Dernegi, Ankara. Dansuk, E. (1996), Turkiye'de Yoksullugun Olqulmesi ve Sosyo-Ekonomik Yapilarla Iligkisi, Uzmanlik Tezi, DPT, Ankara. Demir, E. (1994) '1980 Sonrasi Turkiye'de Uygulanan Ekonomi Politikalarinin Kent Emekqi Ailelerinin Geqim Stratejileri Uzerine Etkisi', Sosyoloji Dernegi (ed) Dunya'da ve Turkiye'de Guncel Sosyolojik GeliSmeler, Sosyoloji Dernegi Yayinlari III., ------------------ Ankara. (2001) Gelir Dagiliminin Iyileytirilmesi ve Yoksullukla Mucadele, Ozel Ihtisas Komisyonu Raporu, DPT Yayin: 2599, Ankara. Duben, A. (1982) 'The Significance of Family and Kinship in Urban Turkey', C. Kagitqibagi (ed) Sex Roles, Family and Community in Turkey, Indiana University TurkishStudies 3, Bloomington. ------------ (1991) 'The Rationality o f an InformalEconomy; The Provision o f Housing in Southern Turkey' M. Kiray (ed) Structural Change in Turkish Society, Indiana UniversityTurkishStudies 1O., Bloomington. Erder, S. (1996) Istanbul'a Bir KentKondu: Umraniye, Iletigim,Istanbul. Erman, T. (1998a) 'Women and the Housing Environment: The Experiences o f Turkish Migrant Women in Squatter (Gecekondu) and Apartment Housing', Environment and Behaviour, Vo1.28, No.6. Gokqe, B. et a1 (1993) Gecekondularda Ailelerarasi Geleneksel Dayaniymanin CagdaS Organizasyonlara DoniiSumu, T.C. Bagbakanlik Kadin ve Sosyal Hizmetler Mustegarligi Yayinlari No.75, Ankara. iqduygu, A,, I. I. Sirkeci, Aydingun (1998) 'Turkiye'de Iq GO$ ve IC Igqi Goqun Hareketine Etkisi'A. Iqduygu, I.Sirkeci, I.Aydingun (eds) Turkiye'de I q Goq, Turkiye Ekonomik ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfi, Istanbul. Kalaycioglu, S. and Rittersberger, H. (1998) 'Is Iligkilerinde Kadinca Bir Bakig: Ev Himetlerinde Caligan Kadinlar' Turk Tarih Vakfi (ed.) 75 Yilda Kadinlar ve Erkekler, Istanbul. Karasan, N. (1991) 'Factors Influencing School Attendance in Basic Education in Turkey with Special Emphasison Female Participation', World Bank Document, Ankara. Karpat, K (1976) The Gecekondu; Rural Migration and Urbanization, Cambridge UniversityPress, Cambridge. 148  Kartal, K. (1983) Ekonomik ve Sosyal Yonleriyle Turkiye'de Kentlileyme', Yurt Yaymlari, Ankara. Onen, E. (1887) 'Kent Dayanigmasi ve Hemgerilik Dernekleri', Sosyoloji Dernegi (ed) II.Ulusa1 Sosyoloji Kongresi; Toplum ve Go$, Turkiye Cumhuriyeti Bagbakanlik Devlet Istatistik Enstitusiive Sosyoloji Dernegi, Ankara. fjenyapili, 0.(1978) KentlileyenKoyluler,Milliyet Yayinlari, Ankara. Tatlidil, E. (1989) Kentleyme ve Gecekondu, Ege Universitesi Edebiyat Fakiiltesi Yayini, Izmir. Varp, R. (1988) 'Periodic Foodstuff Markets and Market Traders in Ankara' MSc. Dissertation, MiddleEast Technical University, Ankara, August. World Bank. (2000) Turkey: Economic Reforms, Living Standards and Social Welfare Study, Poverty Reduction and Econoomic Management Unit, Europe and Central Asia Region. 149  ASSESSMENT OF SOCIAL SOLIDARITY FUNDBENEFICIARIES InterimReport MiddleEastTechnicalUniversity Department of Sociology February 2002 Ankara 150  CONTENTS I.Introduction 11. Methodology 1. SampleSelectionandCoverage 2. DataCollection 3. Characteristicsof the Sample 111. BeneficiaryAssessment 1. SupportReceived 2. EducationSupport 3. FoodSupport 4. HeatingSupport 5. HealthSupport 6. GeneralEvaluation IV. Conclusion Appendix 151  I.Introduction The purpose o f this beneficiary assessment exercise is to evaluate the degree o f satisfaction o f the beneficiaries o f Social Solidarity Fund(SSF). As specified inthe TOR, the assessment has two components. One is the application o f 1000 questionnaires (hereafter survey) to the beneficiaries and the other i s in-depth interviews with the selected beneficiaries. For the interim report, the research team has to complete 200 questionnaires and 16 in-depthinterviews. The following text reports the results of the completed survey conducted with 1000beneficiaries. Presently, in-depth interviews are being conducted inthe field and as o f February 20, 2002, there are three provinces left which totals to 33 in-depth interviews. The results of the in-dept interviews will be presented in the final report in order not to mislead SSF by givingan incomplete picture. 11.Methodology 1. Sample Selection and Coverage The sample is selected by using multi-stage stratified cluster samplingtechnique. Turkey is divided by seven regions following the State Institute o f Statistics (SIS) 7-fold division (First stage). T w o provinces are selected randomly from each region (Second stage). At the third stage, a town (district) i s identified randomly among the towns under the jurisdiction o f the province. At the fourth stage, a village is selected again randomly from the villages in the administrative borders o f the town with the help o f Social Solidarity Fund(SSF). Final selection o f beneficiaries within each region i s proportional to the total number o f beneficiaries in Turkey. Upon the request o f Social Solidarity Fund beneficiaries from four different groups are selected with equal weights. These are: 1. beneficiaries livinginthe center o fthe city, 2. beneficiaries living inthe shanty towns o fthe city, 3. beneficiaries living intowns, and 4. beneficiaries living invillages. However, during the fieldwork a unique category i s identified and added to this list. These are the beneficiaries living inpre-fabric housing particularly in the earthquake riddenareas. The following table presents the sample distribution o fbeneficiaries by region, Table 1. Sample Distribution of Beneficiaries by Region Frequency Percent 1 Mediterranean 107 10.1 2 East Anatolia 145 13.7 3 Aegean 102 9.6 4 SoutheastAnatolia 148 14.0 5 Central 186 17.5 6 Blacksea 162 15.3 7 Marmara 210 19.8 Total 1060 100.0 152  The number o f beneficiaries in the sample i s proportional to the population figures provided by Social Solidarity Fund. Sample distribution o fbeneficiaries byprovince i s given inTable 2. Table 2 SampleDistributionof Beneficiariesby Province Frequency Percent 1 Adana 56 5.3 3 Afyon 44 4.2 6 Ankara 17 1.6 7 Antalya 51 4.8 10 Balikesir 105 9.9 25 Erzurum 77 7.3 27 Gaziantep 73 6.9 35 Izmir 58 5.5 42 Konya 94 8.9 47 Mardin 75 7.1 49 Mus 68 6.4 50 Nevsehir 92 8.7 52 Ordu 71 6.7 54 Sakarya 105 9.9 78 Karabiik 74 7.0 Total 1060 100.0 According to the sample design, there must be 14 provinces in the table. One more province (Ankara) i s added to replace the remaining cases for Afyon which had an earthquake during the fieldwork. So the missing cases for Bolvadin (Afyon) are completed inCubuk (Ankara). Table 3 presents the towns in the sample. Excluding the towns in the province centers, 14 towns are visited. InTable 3, the numbers infront ofthe town nameidentifiesthe province to which town belongs to. As it i s clear from the table, Bolvadin (Afyon) has less number o f questionnaires than the other towns. As it is mentioned above, this is due to the earthquake which happened the day our interviewer visited Bolvadin. 153  Table 3. SampleDistribution of Towns Frequency Percent 101 Center 88 8.3 102 Ceyhan 1 30 2.8 301 Center 22 2.1 302 Bolvadin 2 7 .7 602 Cubuk 17 1.6 702 Manavgat 3 23 2.2 1001 Center 50 4.7 1002 Bigadiq 4 54 5.1 2501 Center 41 3.9 2502 Askale5 36 3.4 2701 Center 37 3.5 2702 Kargamis 6 38 3.6 3501 Center 28 2.6 3502 Menemen 7 30 2.8 4201 Center 42 4.0 4202 Selquklu 8 52 4.9 4701 Center 37 3.5 4702 Mazidagi 9 36 3.4 4901 Center 17 1.6 4902 Haskoy 10 32 3.O 5001 Center 47 4.4 5002 Acigol 11 45 4.2 5201 Center 37 3.5 5202 Camas 12 34 3.2 5401 Center 52 4.9 5402 Akyazi 13 54 5.1 7801 Center 40 3.8 7802 Ovacik 14 34 3.2 Total 1060 100.0 Table 4 gives the villages in the sample. According to the sample design, one village in each town is supposed to b e visited. However, due to the composition of the beneficiaries regarding the type o f support received, the research team visited two or three villages. Table 4 Sample Distributionof Villages Frequency Percent Non-village 810 76.4 Alaagaq 20 1.9 Asarli 6 .6 Azikli 8 .8 Bekirler 10 .9 Ciftlik 7 .7 Ekincik 15 1.4 Gokyazi 8 .8 Gurgoze 12 1.1 Hisarbey 18 1.7 Kivircik 12 1.1 Kocakent 6 .6 154  Kugukmangit 15 1.4 Ki$a 4 .4 Merdiven 12 1.1 Ovacik 2 .2 Sarilar 12 1.1 Soylu 6 .6 Tatkoy 22 2.1 Tepekoy 22 2.1 Vakifkoy 6 .6 Ilyaslar 20 1.9 Iyklar 7 .7 Total 1060 100.0 Duringthe final selection, beneficiaries are identified inequal numbers from four different locations given on page 4. However, in some province centers, there are no areas which can be delineated as "shantytown". In such cases, all beneficiaries are selected from the different neighborhoods which are at various distances to the province center. Table 5 Sample Distribution of Beneficiariesby ResidentialLocation Frequency Percent Province center 312 29,4 Shantytown 221 20.8 I Town I 248 I 23.4 I Prefabric housing area 29 2,7- Total 1060 100,o Almost a11households s elected for interview accepted t o be interviewed which rendered the non-response rate approximately 0. Considering the possibility o f elimination o f cases during data cleaning and editing, the interviewers are instructed to conduct 2-3 more interviews which increased the original sample size o f 1000to 1060. Interviewers received the help of Fund officers at varying degrees during the fieldwork for which the research team i s gratehl. 2. Data Collection The instrument for data collection is questionnaire. It i s administered face to face byusingpaper-pencil technique. The questionnaire has six modules. 1. Biographical information and support applied for and received 2. Education assistance 3. Food assistance 4. Heating assistance 5. Health assistance 6. General evaluation 155  There are altogether 90 questions inthe questionnaire. Due t o the 1ow educational attainment o f the beneficiaries, each interview took 25 minutes which is more than the expected duration o f 15-20 minutes depending on the number o f supports received. Particular attention i s paid to isolate the beneficiary from other family members and the Fundofficers duringthe interview. The fieldwork started in the last week o f January and lasted two weeks. Total o f 17 interviewers worked inthe field. In-depthinterviews were conducted by an expert. 3. Characteristics of the Sample The percentage o fwomen inthe sample is 69 while the correspondingpercentage for men is 31. This is not surprising given the fact that women make up the most vulnerable group inthe society. The following table summarizes the joint distribution o f age and gender. It is interestingto see that the beneficiaries are concentrated in 35-39, 65 and over and 30-34 age categories. In all three categories females represented more than males. 65 and over age group is particularly important since they are no longer in the active labor force. Although very few innumber, there are some beneficiaries under 19 years old. Table 6 Joint Distributionof Age and Gender Age Gender Female Male Total 15-19 13 4 17 1.2% .4% 1.6% 20-24 35 20 55 3.3% 1.9% 5.2% 25-29 70 27 97 6.6% 2.6% 9.2% 30-34 96 41 137 9.1% 3.9% 13.0% 35-39 138 38 176 13.1% 3.6% 16.7% 40-44 73 29 102 6.9% 2.7% 9.7% 45-49 58 40 98 5.5% 3.8% 9.3% 50-54 51 27 78 4.8% 2.6% 7.4% 55-59 36 25 61 3.4% 2.4% 5.8% 60-64 46 18 64 4.4% 1.7% 6.1% 65+ 111 59 170 10.5% 5.6% 16.1% 727 328 1055 68.9% 31.1% 100.0% 156  As for educational status, high o f 42 percent o f beneficiaries are illiterate. This is much higher than the national average. According to the most recent and reliable estimate, the illiteracy rate in 1996 was 13 percent (SIS). 38 percent o f the beneficiaries has only primary school education. Those who have primary school and less education make 91 percent o f the sample which deserves further attention. Table 7. EducationalStatus of Beneficiaries Frequency Percent 1 Illiterate 446 42.1 2 Literate but no schooling 46 4.3 3 Primary school dropout 74 7.0 4 Primary school 402 37.9 5 Junior high(or equivalent) dropout 27 2.5 6 Junior high(or equivalent) 28 2.6 7 Highschool (or equivalent) dropout 5 .5 8 High school (or equivalent) 29 2.7 10 University or higheducation 2 .2 Total 1059 99.9 No answer 1 .1 Total 1060 100.0 Average household size of the beneficiaries in the sample is 4.93 which i s higher than the average for Turkey. In the recent study conducted for the World Bank, the average family size was 3.91(Income and Consumption in Turkey, 2001) 77 percent o f the beneficiary families have at least one person under 18 years o f age living in the house. The average number o f person under the age o f 18 living inthe households i s 2.16 which implies that each family has, on the average, two members younger than 18 years o f age. Of the beneficiary households, 14 percent has one disabled person living at home. Households with two disabled persons are 2.4 percent. In total, 17.4 percent o f the households have disabled persons living inthe house. Table 8 Numberof DisabledPersoninthe House Frequency Percent None 875 82.6 1 153 14.4 2 25 2.4 3 5 .5 4 1 .1 Total 1059 100.0 Much igher percent of bene :iary households (34 %) have one sick person in the house while 6 percent o f the households have 2 sick persons. Considering all households, 41 percent have at least one sick person living inthe house. 157  Table 9 Number of Sick Personin the House Frequency Percent None 621 58.6 1 359 33.9 2 64 6.0 3 9 .8 4 4 .4 5 1 .1 7 1 .1 Considering both disabled and sick person inthe house, it i s seen that 54 percent o f the beneficiary households have either disabled or sick person living in the house (Refer to Table 1 inthe Appendix) 111. BeneficiaryAssessment This section deals with the four types o f supports in turn, which are education, food, heating and health. Before taking up individual supports, it will be useful to look at the assistance provided to the beneficiaries. 1. SupportReceived Table 10 and Table 11 provide information about education support. Table 10 probes the relationship between applying for education support and receiving in cash support. Among the receiver o f education support in cash, 67 percent o f those who applied and 8.1 percent of those who did not apply can be found. More than two-thirds o f applicants received the support. It is interesting to note that 8 percent o f beneficiaries who did not apply also received in cash education support. Given the fact that beneficiaries o f education support i s chosen by the commission formed in school and headed by the principal or a teacher o f the student, formal application i s not necessary. Only in cases where student is not selected to receive support, parents can apply for the support on behalf o f their child. Table 10 Joint Distribution of Applying and ReceivingEducation Support in Cash Did you apply for education support? Yes No Total Did you receive Yes 234 58 292 Education support in 67,2% 8,1% 27,5% cash? No 114 654 768 32,ay0 91,9% 72,5% Total 348 712 1060 100,0% 1OO,O% 100,0% 158  Dueto the character ofthe education support for which application is not required and those students who are in need o f help are chosen by the school commission, percentages in Table 11 o f those who received in-kindeducation support makes up only 32.5 percent o f those who applied and 6.5 percent o f those who did not apply. Comparing beneficiaries who received education support, it is seen that education support inthe form o f cash payment i s more common compared to in-kindassistance. Table 11Joint Distribution of Applying and ReceivingEducationSupport In-Kind Did you apply for education suc)c)ort? Yes No Total Did you receive Yes 113 46 159 education support in- 32,5% 6,5% 15,0% kind? No 235 666 901 67,5% 93,5% 85,OYo Total 348 712 1060 1OO,O% 100,0% 100,0% Food assistance which i s normally given upon the application received from the individuals provides information to evaluate the functioning o f Social Solidarity Fund. Altogether 70 percent o f the beneficiaries inthe sample received food support (Table 12). Among the receivers, one sees 86.5 percent o f those who applied and 38 percent o f those who did not apply. Interesting point to note i s the existence of people who received help without application. It became clear during the fieldwork that particularly invillages and in some small residential areas, mukhtars were applying on behalf of the poor families living inthe neighborhoods under their jurisdiction. Among those who did not receive the support, 13.5 percent o f the applicants were found. These are the families who were turned down by the Support Commission. Table 12 Joint Distribution of Applying and ReceivingFood Support Did you apply for food support? Yes No Total Did you receive Yes 607 136 743 food support? 86,5% 38,0% 70,1% No 95 222 317 13,5% 62,0% 29,9% Total 702 358 1060 1OO,O% 1OO,O% 1OO,O% Table 13 gives the similar statistics for heating support. Inthe sample, 59 percent of the beneficiaries received heating support. Among these, there were 81 percent o f the applicants and 25 percent o f the non-applicants. Again application o f those who did not apply but receivedthe support was handledby the mukhtars on their behalf. However, the percentage o f those who applied but did not receive the support i s little higher compared 159  to the case inthe food support. Almost one-fifth o f the applicants did not receive heating support. Table 13 Joint Distribution of Applying and ReceivingHeating Support Did you apply for heating support? Yes No Total Did you receive Yes 530 99 629 heating support? 80,7% 24,6% 59,3% No 127 304 431 19,3% 75,4% 40.7% Total 657 403 1060 100,0% 100,0% 1OO,O% Compared to the previous supports, beneficiaries of the health support make up 15 percent o f the sample (Table 14). 70 percent o f the applicants and 2 percent of the non-applicants received health support. However, among those who did not receive health support, there existed 30 percent o f the applicants. It should be remembered that there are certain drugs (such as imported cancer pills) and equipment (such as contact lenses) which cannot be delivered by SSF. This i s why the percentage of non-receivers among the appliers i s muchhigherthan the corresponding figures inthe previous tables. Table 14 Joint Distribution of Applying and ReceivingHealth Support Did you apply for health support? Yes No Total Did you receive Yes 140 19 159 health support? 69,7% 2,2% 150% No 61 840 901 30,3% 97,8% 85,0% Total 201 859 1060 100,0% 1OO,O% 1OO,O% It became clear during the fieldwork that some beneficiaries also requested cash support. Although such support i s not included in the support programs o f SSF, it i s learned that cash support has been given to some under extraordinary conditions. As it was indicated by the beneficiaries they make better use o f the cash support in paying expenses such as electricity, telephone and others that require cash payments. Among the receiver of the cash support, 70 percent o f applicants and 2 percent o f non-applicants can be seen. Again, it is interesting that few also received cash support without applying for it. Obviously applicationhas beendone either by mukhtar or SSF personal onthe basis of living conditions of the poor families. 160  Table 15 Joint Distributionof ApplyingandReceivingCash Support Did you apply for cash support? Yes No Total Did you receive Yes 60 119 179 cashsupport? 80,0% 12,1% 16,9% No 15 866 881 20,0% 87,9% 83,1% Total 75 985 1060 1OO,O% 1OO,O% 1OO,O% 2. EducationSupport Inthis section, results of the survey concerning to the education support will be summarized. 2.1.Problems Faced During the Applicationfor the Support: Only 12 percent o f the recipient indicated that they had a problem during the application for the education support. For 88 percent o f the recipients, there were no problems inthe applicationprocess. Table 16 Distributionof Difficultiesin the Applicationfor EducationSupport Pct o f Difficulty Code Frequency Responses Application place i s far away 1 4 10,3 Too many papers requested 2 3 7,7 It is costly 3 4 10,3 Disturbingbehavior o fVakifpersonal 4 15 38,5 Other 5 13 33,3 Total responses 39 100,o 2.2 Informing Recipient About Delivery Time of the Support Inorder to better serve the recipients, they need to be informed about when they will receive the support. This is important for the fact that certain supports are good only if they are delivered timely. Providing education support in cash well after the school starts will contribute little to reduce the hardship of poor families to pay the school expenses of their children. 161  Table 17. InformingRecipientaboutDeliveryTime of the Support Frequency Percent Informed 125 42,7 Not informed 168 57,3 Total 293 100,o 57 percent o fthe recipients indicated that they were not told when the support will be delivered. Among the 43 percent who were informed, 20 percent were told that they would receive it later while 22 percent were informed that delivery would be at once. The average delivery time (median used due to the extreme values in the distribution) given by Vakif personal was 2 weeks. However the actual delivery time o f the support was 4 weeks on the average. 2.3 Problems Faced in the Delivery of the Support 8 percent o f the recipients indicated a problem they experienced during the deliveryofthe support whereas 92 percent didnot mention to any problems. Table 18. Distributionof Difficultiesin the Deliveryof EducationSupport Pct o f Difficulty Code Frequency Responses Distribution place was away 1 3 799 Waited too long inline 2 7 18,4 Disturbingbehavior o fVakifpersonal 3 2 5,3 Disturbingbehavior of school personal 4 10 26,3 Other 5 16 42,l Total responses 38 100,o 2.4 Characteristics of the Delivered Support One o f the issues which i s also raised in the media was intact or incomplete delivery o f the support. In the case o f the education support in-cash, some schools were reported as withholding some amount o f the support money or incase o f in-kind support, some schools again were accused o f unequal treatment o f children in the distribution o f school material and dress. 83 percent o f the education support beneficiaries reported receiving the support as indicated whereas 17 percent mentioned a problem. Table 19 Distributionof PlacesWhere the Supportis Deduced Pct o f Place 1 Code Frequency Responses Vaklf 1 2 5,7 Bank 2 3 8,6 School 3 12 34,3 Other 4 18 51,4 Total responses 35 100,o 162  2.5 Serving to the Purpose It is important to know how the beneficiaries made use o f the support. The purpose o f providing the education support is to lessen the burden o f meeting school expenses for the poor families. Helping families for buying school related material will contribute to keeping the children o f the poor families inschool. 87,3 percent o f the beneficiaries indicated their use in line with the purpose whereas 13 percent used the support for other means. 2.6 TheDegree of SufJiciency of the Support Since the education support i s just assistance for the poor families and i s not created to meet all the educational needs o f the poor families, it is rather curious matter to know how sufficient the support i s inmeeting the needs o f the poor families. The table in Appendix presents the replies o f the beneficiaries to the question o f "How sufficient was the education support you received in meeting the school needs o f your children?" Responses were recorded on scale o f 1to 5 from `not sufficient at all' to `completely sufficient'. The mean value i s 2.13 which indicate low sufficiency o f the education support. 3. Food Support: Similar to the previous section, results o f the survey concerning to the food support will be summarized. 3.1 Problems Faced During the Application for the Support: 21 percent o f the recipient indicated that they had a problem during the application for the food support. For 79 percent o f the recipient there were no problems in the application process. Table 20 Distributionof Problemsin the Applicationfor Food Support Pct o f Problems Code Frequency Responses Application place was far away 1 30 18,4 Too many papers requested 2 47 28,8 Costly 3 23 14,l Disturbingbehavior o fVakif personal 4 39 23,9 Other 5 24 14,7 Total responses 163 100,o 163  3.2 Informing Recipient About Delivery Timeof the Support Inorder to better serve the recipients, they need to be informed about when they will receive the support. This is important for the fact that certain supports are good only iftheydeliveredtimely. Table 21 InformingRecipientabout DeliveryTime of the Support Frequency Percent Informed 181 32,5 Not informed 375 67,4 Total 556 100,o 67 percent o f the recipients indicated that they were not told when the support will be delivered. Among the 32 percent who were informed, 20 percent were told that they would receive it later while 12 percent were informed the immediate delivery. The average delivery time given by Vakif personal was 2 weeks. However, the actual delivery time o f the support was 4 weeks on the average. 3.3 Problems Faced in the Delivery of the Support 18 percent o f the recipients indicated a problem they experienced during the delivery o fthe food support whereas 82 percent didnot mention to any problems. Whenasked to identify the problems, the beneficiaries (47 %) indicatedthat they waited too long in line to receive the support. Distance o f the deliveryplace was the second complaint that voiced by 29 percent o f the beneficiaries. Still 10 percent were disturbedbythe mannerofthe Vakif personalduringthe delivery process. Table22 Distributionof ProblemsFacedinthe Deliveryof FoodSupport Pct o f Problems Code Frequency Responses Delivery place was far away 1 50 28,6 Waited too long inline 2 82 46,9 Disturbingbehavior of Vakif personal 3 17 9,7 Other 4 26 14,9 Total responses 175 100,o 3.4 Characteristics of the Delivered Support Among all the supports, the food support is probably the one which received more attention in the media. Some o f the most frequent criticisms were the low quality o f the food, selection o f the food items and unequal distribution o f food support among the poor families. The questionnaire probedthe problems with the delivered food items. Since the food support is given as a package, the beneficiaries were asked about their thoughts o f the package. 56 percent indicated that they have a complaint about the package whereas 44 percent did not have any complaints. Their complaints are presented inTable 23. 164  Table 23 Distributionof Problemswith the Food Package Pct o f Problems Code Frequency Responses Variety i s limited 1 133 21,o Quantity i s less 2 368 58,l Some are not fresh 3 27 473 Quality i s less 4 26 471 Itdoes not havewhat Ineed 5 66 10,4 Other 6 13 2, 1 Total responses 633 100,o Higho f58 percent o fthe beneficiarieswere not happy with the quantity provided. Infact, lack ofstandardization inquantity offoodpackages is observedbythe interviewers duringthe fieldwork. The second most agreed complaint was the limited variety o f food inthe packages which i s followed by the lack of needed food items inthe packages. Lack o f variety and absence o f the neededitems were mentioned by 31percent o f the beneficiaries. Common complaints about quality and freshness o f the food were mentioned by four percent o fthe beneficiaries each. As for unequal distribution o fthe food support, the beneficiarieswere as ifthey observed any difference between what they and their neighbors received. As the following table reveals, 57 percent thought that they received what everyone received. However, 23 percent thought that there were differences among the food packages. Table 24 Percentageof Responses aboutDifferencesAmong Food Packages Frequency Percen t 1 Yes 166 22,5 2 No 420 56,s 3 Donotknow 153 20,7 Total 739 100,o 3.5 Serving to the Purpose Since the support inmost cases i s provided inkind, it is assumed that it serves for the purpose. However, rumors were heard about food trading inthe form o f exchange o f needed items. 3.6 TheDegree of SufJiciency of the Support The beneficiaries were asked to indicate the degree that the food support provided meets their needs. For t he 5 percent o f t hebeneficiaries, the food support meets their needs completely. 59 percent indicate partial fulfillment o f their needs. However, 36 percent think that the support does not meet their needs. 165  Those who respondedby saying "in part" or "does not meet our needs" constitute a vulnerable group. It i s a rather curious issue to know how they manage to get food. These groups were asked what they do ifthe food support does not meet their needs. Table25 DistributionofResponsesin Casethe Food Support is not Enough Pct o f Response Code Frequency Responses Asking again from Vakif 1 28 330 Receive food support from a different organization 2 32 334 Receivehelp from relatives, friends, neighbors 3 278 29,8 Borrow money 4 259 27,8 Other 5 335 35,9 Total responses 932 100,o 4. HeatingSupport: In this section, results of the survey conceming to the heating support will be summarized. 4.1 Problems Faced During theApplication for the Support: 17 percent o f the recipient indicated that they had a problem during the application for the heating support. For 83 percent o f the recipients, there were no problems inthe applicationprocess. Table 26 Distributionof Difficultiesinthe Applicationfor HeatingSupport Pct of Difficulty Code Frequency Responses Application place i s far away 1 22 19,l Too manypapers requested 2 35 30.4 It is costly 3 10 8.7 Disturbingbehavior o fVakifpersonal 4 26 22.6 Other 5 22 19.1 Total responses 115 100,o O f the beneficiaries who indicated problems with the application for heating support, 30 percent mentioned too muchbureaucracy involved, 23 percent were bothered with the behavior o f Vakif personal and 20 percent complained about remoteness of the application place. 4.2 Informing Recipient About Delivery Time of the Support Heatingis one o f the essential needs o f the poor. Families spend sizable portion of their budget on heating material. Moreover, heating is one of those supports the delivery time of which is important for the recipient. Informing the recipients about the delivery time serves also to lessenthe worry they feel about this important need. 166  Table 27. InformingRecipientaboutDelivery Time of the Support Frequency Percent Informed 181 35.2 Not informed 333 64,8 Total 514 100,o 65 percent o fthe recipients indicated that they were not told whenthe support will be delivered. Among the 35 percent who were informed, 20 percent were told that they would receive it later while 15 percent were informed about the delivery at once. In fact, 23 percent of the beneficiaries received the heating material at once. For those who received the support at a later time, the average delivery time given by Vakif personal was 2 weeks. However, the actual delivery time o f the support was 4 weeks on the average. 4.3 Problems Faced in the Delivery of the Support 30 percent o f the recipients indicated a problem they experienced during the delivery o fthe support whereas 70 percent did not mention to any problems. Table 28. Distributionof Difficultiesin the Deliveryof HeatingSupport Pct o f Difficulty Code Frequency Responses Deliveryplacewas away 1 57 17,6 Waited too long inline 2 55 17.0 Disturbingbehavior o fVakifpersonal 3 8 2.5 Not delivered to myhouse 4 135 41.8 Other 5 68 21,l Total responses 323 100,o The problem that was mentioned by 42 percent o f the beneficiaries was that the heating material was not delivered to their houses. This is understandable since transportation o f coal which is the common heating material i s costly and these poor families do not have the cash money to pay for the transportation. In some cases the transportation cost was paid in-kind by giving up some portion of the coal that they were given. Two factors, remoteness o f the delivery place and waiting too long to get the support, each was mentioned by 17 percent o f the beneficiaries. 4.4 Characteristics of the Delivered Support One o f the isues which is raised inthe media was incomplete delivery o f the heating support. What i s alluded to in this criticism i s the implication that some heating material i s stolen during the delivery process. The beneficiaries were asked if they received the support inthe amount specified during the applicationprocess. 96 percent o f the heating support beneficiaries reported receiving the support as indicatedwhereas only 4 percent (23 beneficiaries) mentioned a problem. 167  Very few o f the beneficiaries indicated where the heating support was deducted. Out of 7 beneficiaries responded, 3 mentioned to Vakif and 4 to other places. (Refer to Table 3 inAppendix) 4.5 Sewing to the Purpose The purpose o f providing the heating support is to lessen the burden o f paying high heating expenses for the poor families, keeping them away from various diseases and in a more indirect way help children as well as contributing to the survival o f the poor families. To probe the issue, the beneficiaries were asked if they used the support themselves. 98.4 percent o f the beneficiaries answered positively indicating that they used the heating support for themselves. Only a very small portion (1.6 YO)answered negatively. 4.6. TheDegree of Sufficiency of the Support How far did the heating support meet the beneficiaries' needs? The following table answersthe question. Table 29 Sufficiency of the HeatingSupport Frequency Percent 1 Completely 73 11,7 2 Partially 412 66,O 3 Not sufficient 139 22,3 Total 624 100,o For 12 percent o f the beneficiaries the heating support was completely sufficient. 66 percent indicated that the heating support helpedpartially while 22 percent found the support insufficient. To probe the issue further, those who found the support insufficient and those who said partly sufficient were asked how they solve the problem. Table 30 Distributionof Responsesin Casethe HeatingSupport is not Enough Pct o f Solution Code Frequency Responses Request again from Vakif 1 20 371 Obtain support from a different organization 2 20 371 Receive help from relatives andneighbors 3 183 28,l Borrow money 4 124 19,O Other 5 304 46,7 Total responses 651 100,o 168  The most common solution in finding heating material in the case o f insufficient Vakif support seems to be resorting to relatives and neighbors(28 YO)followed by borrowing money to buy the heatingmaterial (19 %). 5. HealthSupport Health support differs from the other supports in important ways which are varying duration and the amount o f the support. Dependingon the nature o f the sickness, cost of medicine and treatment varies considerably which, in turn, affect the cost o f support. Following table summarizes the relationship between type and duration o f support. Reading down the last column o f Table 31,it is clear that the health support inthe form o f providing medicine is more common than the other forms, which is followed by paying for treatment and providing medical equipment. As for duration o f support, reading the row marginal, it is seen that health support provided when needed outweighs continuous supports. upport' 1 Percents and totals based on responses The most common form o f the health support seems to be paying for medicine when needed (33.6) which is followed by medicine support on a continuous basis. Third common form o f the support is paying treatment when needed which i s followed by paying treatment cost on a continuous basis. Buyingmedical equipment when needed i s less frequent form o f the health support (6.5 %). Very few beneficiaries receive medical equipment on a continuousbasis (1.8 %) 5.1. Problems Faced During the Applicationfor the Support 24 percent o f the recipient indicated that they had a problem during the application for the medical support. For 76 percent o f the recipients, there were no problems in the application process. Table 32 presents the problems faced in the application for the health support. 169  Table 32 Distributionof ProblemsFacedDuringthe Application for HealthSupport Pct o f Problems Code Frequency Responses Application place i s far away 1 5 8,5 Obtainingmedical report i s difficult 2 12 20,3 Too many papers requested 3 14 23,7 Itis costly 4 7 11,9 Disturbing behavior o f Vakif personal 5 13 22,o Other 6 8 13,6 Total responses 59 100,o Requestingtoo manypapers was mentionedby a quarter o fthe beneficiaries which is followed by disturbingbehavior o f Vakif personal (22 YO).One-fifth o f the beneficiaries complained about difficulty inobtaining medical report. Little over 10 percent found the process costly. 5.2 Informing Recipient About Delivery Timeof the Support Health support is crucial for the poor since great majority are not covered by any social security system. Given the expensive nature o f medical treatment, they need to be taken care o f by SSF. However, health support poses great challenges for SSF since the recipients are sick and some are not mobile. Medicine, treatment and medical equipment are very expensive. There are also certain limitations on medical equipment such as contact lenses that cannot beprescribed. Table33. InformingRecipient aboutDelivery Time of the Support Frequency Percent Informed 93 61.2 Not informed 59 38.8 Total 152 100,o 39 percent o fthe recipients indicated that they were not told when the support will be delivered. Among the 61 percent who were informed, 10 percent were told that they would receive it later while 51 percent were informed about the delivery at once. 77 percent o f the beneficiaries received the health support at once. For those who received the support at a later time, the average delivery time given by Vakif personal was 2 weeks. In fact, the actual delivery time o f the support was 2 weeks on the average. There was no delay inthe delivery o fthe health support. 5.3 Problems Faced in the Delivery of the Support 31 percent o f the recipients indicated a problem they experienced during the delivery o fthe support whereas 69 percent didnot mention to any problems. 170  Those beneficiaries who experienced problems in receiving the support mentioned the following factors. Table 34 Distribution of Difficulties in the Delivery of Health Support Pct o f Problems Code Frequency Responses Remoteness o f delivery location 1 12 21,l Approval of Vakif takes long time 2 15 26,3 Other 3 30 52,6 Total responses 57 100,o Two problems appear to bother the beneficiaries o f the health support. More than one-fourth o fthem complained about the delay in getting approval from Vakif while little over one-fifth found the pick-upplaces too far away. 5.4 Characteristics of the Delivered Support Since the support i s given on the basis o f request, there is a fairly good match between what was requested and obtained. 5.5 Serving to the Purpose Since the health support i s personalized, no trade-off or selling of the support material i s possible. So it serves the purpose completely. 5.6 TheDegree of Suficiency of the Support How far didthe health support meet the beneficiaries' needs? The following table answers the question. Table 35 Sufficiency of the Health Support Frequency Percent 1 Completely 68 42,5 2 Partially 70 43,s 3 Not sufficient 22 13,s Total 160 100,o For 42.5 percent of the beneficiaries the health support was completely sufficient. 44 percent indicated that the health support helped partially while 14 percent found the supportinsufficient. Those who responded as "partially meets the need" and "does not meet the need" were asked what was missing in the support. 61 percent indicated that they did not receive all o f the medicine or the medical equipment while small portion (2.4 %) complained about low quality o f the equipment. They were also asked how they solved the problem. 171  Table 36 Distributionof ResponsesinCasethe HealthSupport is notEnough Pct o f Solution Code Frequency Responses Request again from Vakif 1 3 5.8 Obtain support from a different organization 2 1 1.9 Receivehelp from relatives and neighbors 3 16 30.8 Borrow money 4 13 25.O Other 5 19 36.5 Total responses 52 100,o The most common solution in finding missing or low quality medical equipment in the case o f insufficient Vakif support seems to be resorting to relatives and neighbors(3 1%) followed byborrowing money to buy these material (25 %). 6. GeneralEvaluation BAresearch focus on beneficiaries o f social solidarity funds and measure how content the beneficiaries are about the support provided by social solidarity fund. These type o f research usually exclude those who are in need of support but do not get the support for some reason. Targeting the poor is as equally important as serving the poor well. A social solidarity fund may function well in serving the poor which i s commendable initself. However if the poor is not t argeted properly, the praiseworthy work o f the social solidarity funds deviates from its initial objective which is defined as serving the poor. The beneficiaries were asked ifthere were people they knew who needed support but could not get it. 34 percent answered this questionpositively. 30 percent responded as saying `no' while 36 percent answered as `don't know'. Those responded positively were asked ifthe needy people were applied officially for the support. As understood from the responses, o f f these needy people, 51 percent applied, 28 percent did not apply and there was no information on the rest o f them. Equally important i s to know the existence o f beneficiaries who do not need to be helped but still receive support from SSF. 24 percent o f the beneficiaries believed that some receive support even though they do not need it. 28 percent answered by saying `no' while 49 percentjust said `Ido not know'. Existence o f needy people who do not receive the support and non-needy who receive it are two complementary issues that concem justice in the support programs o f SSF. The issue o f justice is probed in the questionnaire and 44 percent o f the beneficiaries indicated their belief injust distribution o f the supports. 28 percent did not believejustice inthe supports while 28 declined to answer by saying they do not know. Social Solidarity Fund i s supposed to help the poor without resenting them. Resentment comes out when others know the people who receive help from the state. The 172  beneficiaries were asked ifthe others around them knew about the support they received. 90 percent indicated that their receivinghelp from the state was known to others while 10 percent said no. The beneficiaries are poor people who cannot survivewithout receiving help from others, be it Social Solidarity Fund, municipality, various NGOs and other people such as relatives and neighbors. This i s the case for 18 percent o f beneficiaries in the sample. In fact they received help from various organizations. What i s curious in this context i s to compare the support obtained from different organizations. To do this, the beneficiaries who made up 18 percent of the sample were asked to compare Social Solidarity Fund with other organizations interms o ftheir content with the provided support. Table37 Comparisonof SSF with Other SupportOrganizations Frequency Percent More Pleasedwith Vakif support 58 36,9 Equally pleased 72 45,9 More pleased with support from other organizations 27 17,2 Total 157 100,O 37 percent o f the multi-support recipients found SSF better than the other organizations while 46 percent o f the beneficiaries thought them equal. However, 17 percent found the other organizations better intheir efforts to provide support. It is o f utmost importance for SSF to be known by the poor so that they can apply for support. SSF has a nationwide network backed up by 931 SSF units in each district. The main objective o f these district units is to announce the supports o f SSF to the public and inform the potential applicants about various support programs available for them. Actually, informing public comes before other duties o f SSF such as selecting the right people to help and making sure that the poorest receive the support. The following table presents the percent distribution o f information sources about SSF supports. Table 38 Source of Information about SSF SupportPrograms Pct o f Source Code Frequency Responses Media 1 36 2,9 Mukhtar 2 551 43,7 Relatives, neighbors 3 435 343 Religious leader 4 2 ,2 Principal 5 73 5,s Vakif 6 106 894 Other 7 57 435 Total responses 1260 100,o It is clear from the table that mukhtars are the important source o f information for 44 percent o f the beneficiaries. The second important source i s relatives and neighbors (34 %) Vakif units were mentioned by only 8 percent o f beneficiaries as a source o f 173  information. I t i s clear that local sources o f information play crucial role in informing public about the support programs. Although mukhtars' having a central intermediary role ininforming potential receivers may seem commandable, it also introduces a bias to the system which is the discretion o fmukhtar indeciding what andwhat not to say. Part o f informing the potential receivers is to tell them during the application, among other matters, under what conditions the support terminates. Responses indicate that only 6 percent were informed while 69 percent o f the applicants were not informed about termination. This question was meaningless for 25 percent o f the respondents since their application have beendone bymukhtars. It is at discretion ofmukhtar, as mentioned above, to say when the support terminates The beneficiaries were asked to indicate their agreement about 4 statements each o f which intends to measure their perceptions about the support program in general. The first statement deals with the recipient o f the support. While some argue that women do betterjob inmaking use o f the support, some argue that given the traditional character o f the Turkish family structure which is male dominated; men should be given the support. 56 percent (completely agree and agree categories combined) agree with the statement which i s muchhigher than the percent o fthose who disagree (14 %) Table 39 Perceptionsabout Support Programs Statement Completely Agree N o idea Disagree Completely Agree disagree It i s better to give the support to woman 27,7 28,7 29,2 9,3 530 Support goes to real needy. 24,2 41,5 15,8 13,4 530 Receivers should not be announced 18,9 26,2 18,9 22,9 12,7 Support Ireceived made my life easy 16,2 60,5 298 15,2 593 The second statement i s crucial for the entire support system which claims that support goes to the poor. 66 percent o f the beneficiaries believe that real poor receive the support. Third statement indicates a principal that SSF i s supposed to follow which i s not revealing the identity o f poor families not to disgrace them in public. It seems that although more beneficiaries preferred not to be announced (45.1 YO),35.6 percent did not see this as a problem. Just the contrary they considered this as useful since it would be possible to see ifthe real poor gets it. Infact, keeping the identities o f the receivers i s not completely possible inpractice since they see each other in Vakif during the application and deliveries. Fourth statement i s subjective evaluation of the program which is also important for SSF administration. 77 percent of the beneficiaries believed that support program made their life easier. One of the ways to evaluate the work o f SSF i s to look at the complaints directed to the organization. Although the tradition o f writing complaints i s not well established in 174  the Turkish society, the number o f complaints still indicates problem areas and dissatisfaction o f the beneficiaries to a certain extent. The following table presents the joint distribution o f information o f where t o s ubmit a complaint and ever s ubmitted a complaint. Table 40 Relationshipof KnowingWhere to Placea Complaint andActually Placinga Complaint. Do you know where to apply Total when you have a complaint? Yes No Didyou ever submit Yes 55 9 64 official or unofficial 54% ,9% 6,2% complaint about the No 320 641 961 supports? 31,2% 62,5?40 93,8% Total 375 650 1025 36,6% 63,4% 1OO,O% It is clear from readingthe margins that only 37 percent o f the beneficiaries knew where to apply when they had a complaint while majority o f them did not even know where to go for it. As hinted earlier, only very small portion o f the beneficiaries (6.2 %) actually placed a complaint about the supports. The conscious beneficiaries who knew where to go in the case of complaint and actually placed a complaint made up 5.4 percent o f all beneficiaries. Those who knew where to apply but never placed a complaint was 31 percent. 63 percent o f the beneficiaries did not know where to apply and never placed a complaint. It is also important to know if the complaints were answered. 63.5 percent o f the complaints were answered while 36.5 percent o f the beneficiaries never received any response to their complaints. 175  IV. Conclusion Given the fact that Turkey experienced two devastating earthquakes and two economic crises in recent years which affected the poor more than any other groups, helping the poor became crucially important. Inaddition to traditional network o f support provided to poor families, SSF targeted 6 percent o f the poor for their support programs. Inthis research, four support programs were putunderscrutiny: education, heating, food and health. The objective o f this study was to assess the degree o f content o f the beneficiaries about the supports that they have received. Two different but complementary techniques were employed to assess the degree o f content o f the beneficiaries. A survey conducted with 1060 beneficiaries provided cross-sectional information about each support program and the content o f the receivers. In-dept interviews provided more detailed information about the problem areas and sources o f discontent. Sample for the survey i s multi-stage stratified cluster sample which represents Turkey. Moreover, selection o f the beneficiaries (77 in total) for in-depth interviews was done carefully as to capture the variation among regions and locations (4 locations givenby SSF) concerning the work o f SSF and beneficiaries' content. Before presenting the findings, some reservations are in order. Although these will be dealt in greater detail in the final report, they will provide a base to interpret the results o f the survey. The study posed difficulties mainly due to the different applications observed in different parts o f the country. The lack o f standard application was the most important o f all. In the pilot study conducted in Kegioren (Ankara) which served as guideline in formulating the questionnaire was different from sizeable portion o f Vakifs in other parts of the country. At one extreme, it was observed that some Vakifs in a certain region give out only cash which was different than the application o f other regions. Lack o f standardization is more pronounced in education and food supports in particular. Despite the written rules about the delivery o f each support, some Vakif personal took the liberty o f distributing the support the ways they deem proper for their specific locations. The motive behind such deviations was to make the supports available for greater number o f poor families, which i s something to praise. However, this policy carries the danger o f giving so little to each that the expected improvement in their life styles does not come out and causes to increase the dissatisfaction on the part o f the recipients. This was the case particularly for education. The same policy o f making the support available for more people i s also followed in food support. The point which was totally missed during the pilot study was the intermediary role o f mukhtars which turned out to be extremely important in some regions. The mukhtars act as intermediaries between the poor who do not have access to support information and the Vakifs which cannot reach every poor family intheir districts. So, in some cases, the poor received support without knowing anything about it. The potential danger with the mukhtars acting as intermediary i s the favoritism they may introduce to the system. Although, a few complaints were voiced by the beneficiaries during the fieldwork, they were just individual cases not enough to make generalization on this point. Possibility o f using mukhtars' intermediary role in attracting political support was 176  particularly probed since this was one o f the loops in the system which i s open to exploitation. N o case o f request for political support was encountered in return to mukhtars' intervention. The following table summarizes the main findings o f the survey. The first item deals with ease o f application for support. The lowest percentage is 76 which belongs to health support. That is, at least three fourths o f the beneficiaries did not have any problems in application. Understandably, education has the highest percentage since the application i s usually done by a school commission headed by the principal o f the school where the student attends. The second item which is important to measure the quality o f service given to the poor families indicate one o f the problem areas. It appears that Vakifs do not informed the beneficiaries about the delivery time properly. Only one third o f the food and heating support beneficiaries were informed about the delivery time while this percentage goes up to 61 percent for health support receivers. One is tempted to think that Vakifs are no exception to the Turkishbureaucracy The issue o f deliveringthe support complete attracted the attention and criticism o f many circles. Education, food and heating supports are particularly mentioned inthese criticisms. Responses o f beneficiaries shed lights to claims o f incomplete delivery o f the supports. Implications o f corruption in delivery o f the supports seem to be without ground. 96 percent o f heating support receivers, 83 percent o f education and 82 percent o f food support receivers indicated that they received their support complete. The percentage was lower (69 %) for the case o fhealth support which is due to the difficulties inobtainingmedicine andmedical equipment. Fourth itemtabs ifthe support was usedin line with the purpose which varies for each kind o f support. Due to the specific character o f the health support which i s individualistic, there i s a complete match between the purpose o f the support and its use. Similarly high match i s valid for heating (98.4 %) and at a lesser degree for education (87.3 %) Table 41 Summary Measuresof Assessment of the Supports I Education I Food 1Heating I Health 1 Y Not havingproblems in application 88 79 83 76 Beinginformed about delivery time 42.7 32.5 35.2 61.2 Receiving the delivery intact 83 82 96 69 Purposeful usage o f the support 87.3 98.4 100 Sufficiency o f the support 17.2 64.12 77.72 86.3 Satisfaction with the support - 44.1 32.6 - How sufficient the supports were is the objective o f the next measure. Health support was found highly sufficient (86.3 %) while it was 78 percent for the heating support receivers and 64 percent for food support receivers. Education supports were found sufficient by only 17 percent o f the beneficiaries. This is due to the application o f 177  some Vakifs which divided the support into small pieces which in turn made some beneficiaries feel that the support was insufficient. In fact, giving just two notebooks to children as education support constitutes a good example for such cases. Satisfaction with the support was not asked uniformly and i s available only for food and heating supports. 44 percent satisfaction with food i s a result o f expectation o f food support for an extended time period. The beneficiaries expect that the food support should be given year around and ona regular b asis which is not the c ase. 0 ccasional character o f the food support lowers the satisfaction o f the receivers. 33 percent satisfaction with heating support i s due to the composition o f the heating support which i s coal only. In order to bum coal, wood is needed which means extra cost for the beneficiaries. Ifthey cannot effort to buywood, coal loses its value. Overall satisfaction is measured w itha question w hich summarizes how happy the beneficiaries felt in general about all the supports they received from SSF. 23 percent felt completely happy with the supports while 61.5 percent just felt happy. Combining the two categories, it becomes clear that 85 percent o f the beneficiaries were happy with the supports. However, 11 percent o f the beneficiaries seem unhappy with the supports provided to them. This highpercentage o f content should be interpretedwith reservation since the poor people who can hardly survive by their own means are given support without expecting anything in return. It i s natural that the majority would be highly satisfied with and thankful for the supports. 178  Appendix Table 1 Joint Distributionof Sick and DisabledPersonsin the House No. o f Number o f Sick Person inthe House Total Disabled Person None 1 2 3 4 5 7 None 489 318 55 7 4 1 1 875 46.2% 30.0% 5.2% .7% .4% -1% .l% 82.6% 1 108 38 6 1 153 10.2% 3.6% .6% .l% 14.4% 2 20 2 3 25 1.9% .2% .3% 2.4% 3 3 1 1 5 .3% .1% .l% .5% 4 1 1 .l% .l% 621 359 64 9 4 1 1 1059 58.6% 33.9% 6.0% 3% .4% .l%.l% 100.0% Table 2 Sufficiency of the EducationSupport Frequency Percent 1Not sufficient at all 138 35,4 2 149 38,2 3 36 972 4 49 12,6 5 Completely sufficient 18 476 Total 390 100,o Table 3 Distributionof Places Where the Supportis Deduced P C t of Category label Code Frequency Responses Vakif 1 3 42.9 Other 3 4 57.1 Total responses 7 100,o 'I1Quintiles, ifthere are 5 groups or deciles, ifthey are 10 groups. iv The Household Income and Consumption Expenditure Survey (HICES) the household Income "Distribution transfers and family size adjustment is done. Surveys were conducted by the State Institute o f Statistics, SIS. After taxes, 179  vi Inflation has been an important problem o f Turkish economy for more than two decades. After the inflation and prices differentials between the the regions are eliminated, income differences are significantly reduced. The relationship between inflation and inequality is examinedby H e (1999), who finds that inflation favors those households with grater access to financial and interest income over those households dependent on wages and transfers. ... "illOnthe expenditure side, inflation also generated inequality, as the prices o f goods and services that are more important for the poor rose faster than other prices o f goods. ix Since pension system i s designed as a pay-as-you-go system, there i s also another redistribution channel which is inter-generational one. This theoretical argument and its evaluation are left beyond the scope o f this study. Poverty 1ine is defined a s the c ost o f 1iving with the minimumstandards. T o determine the minimum standards o f living, the minimumamount of calorie neededper day and the expenditure o n food in order to have t h s amount o f c alorie, are t aken into account. By adding the c osts of other basic needs (housing, clothing, furniture, transportation), the poverty line is calculated. Inorder to be able to call someone "poor", that personshould beunable to acquire the normal living set- upthat consists o fbasic needs o fgoods, services andrights. For definitions and calculations see Erdogan (1996). ""'.Fak-f&-fon "'.geceWapt X v i . consumption ~ ~ ~ xvii. Xviii.houseWives, Mamak, etc. "'"'EgitimSen xxi 180