SINEM ATAY - Although it is difficult to give a certain definition of it, social exclusion may be understood as an accumulation of confluent processes with successive ruptures arising from the heart of the economy, politics and society, which gradually distances and places persons, groups, communities and territories in a position of inferiority in a relation to centers of power, resources and prevailing values (Estivill, 2003, p. 19).
Of course, it does not have the same effect in all places. When we look at the degree of development, we will see differences between urban and rural areas. In rural areas, women are affected more by social exclusion in many ways such as educational gap, employment rates and activitiy. This situation is valid for Turkey as well. In the South Eastern part of Turkey, although they are effective in making contributions in agriculture, women are not aware of facilities for making better life and raising their status in a society so they would be out of modernization process.
Therefore, they deal with works leading them lower status. As a result of this, women participate less in administration and decision making process. In this context there have been many projects dealing with exclusion problem of women in South Eastern Region. At this point there is a need to talk about Multi-Purpose Community Centers. MPCCs are the ones being conducted due to the fact that social values there do not allow women to participate in paid labour by making them concentrate on indoor labor. MPCCs are the centers that have been established in 1995 in region of Southeastern Anatolia Project whose budget is 47 million euro and which is financed by EU and some NGOs such as UNICEF. While these were being formed, the main target was to increase participation of women. Those over the age of 14 are the target group in MPCCs. What is aimed at by MPCCs is making women conscious about their problems and preparing a ground for them to overcome these problems. According to logic of this program, women should be aware of their equality with men. With these purposes it is desired to come up with models which are based on participatory social development. In the scope of this project, 600 billion for micro credits to MPCCs. Moreover, there are some visits for Promotion of the Rights of Women in the road to Turkey’s EU membership.
Thanks to these centers, number of literate women is increasing or many women start secondary schools. Women can have a chance to interested in different fields. Women getting education in MPCC can find a job in market or establish their own jobs. While each year 10000 women participate in MPCCs, there are 50000-60000 people benefiting from the services of them. Some women drawin benefit from programmes of MPCCs are employed as a qualified instructor. There are also some women when they think their lives are meaningless since either they are unhappy with their families and their condition in a society or lost their relatives. Therefore, theyturn over a new leaf with MPCCs. Some women have an opportunity to provide education for their children with scholarships coming from MPCCs. There are also special programmes for the disabled. It is necessary to mention since these centers help inclusion of other groups of people as well. As the most important contribution, position of women as a consumer turn to producer. For this purpose in 3,5 years 28 workplace are opened. Before these centers, women are at their home and even do not go shopping. Some of them have difficulties in transportation since they are illeterate. Now, they become participants of life. One of the problems women there face is their bound to children. They sometimes, have no time to participate in these activities since they have small children whom they must deal with. In this context, this is well-thought by MPCCs since they have some programmes for children. Thanks to this, while mothers can have a chance to take part in activities, their children also benefit from these services. To sum up, there are many solutions of MPCCs to different problems in various fields.
As a conclusion, with the changes in Southeastern Anatolia Region, women’s role in a society started to change as well. However, I think this developments alone are not sufficient. There should be alterations in institutions and society as well. In order to strengthen these attempts national government, private sector organizations, civil society organizations and people ought to work together. It is to be known that changing the society becomes with changing the position of women. Since all the things start with the change in mind, passive image of women in people’s mind should be destroyed. Anymore, women should not be the ones men can easily oppress. For doing this women in a most disadvantaged position should be supported. It is obvious that women not earning their incomes depend on men in their family. This is the point where another story begins. Therefore, it is job for all of us to integrate women into economic life and as a result, labour market which has a gender biased character would not be close to women.
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