Ministry Allocates Only 0.38 Percent of Budget to Women’s Shelters

Click to read the article in Turkish

Purple Roof Women’s Shelter Foundation has shared the data concerning women’s shelters in Turkey, stated that the state institutions don’t allocate sufficient budget to struggle against male violence.

The foundation told bed capacity in women’s shelters in Turkey falls short by 54 percent according to United Nations regulations.

Recalling that the municipalities of more than 100 thousand population are obliged to open women’s shelter, the Purple Roof stressed that only 32 municipalities have women’s shelter whereas the the figure should have been 237.

It was underscored in the statement that budget shared to women’s shelters by the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services, which declared a budget increase for women’s shelter, was 0.24 percent in 2014; 0.3 percent in 2015; 0.29 percent in 2016; 0.29 percent in 2017 and only 0.38 percent in 2018.

The foundation also expressed that the shelters where women went to get rid of systematic violence are called “guest house” and this makes violence against women invisible.

“Using such concepts cause perception that the women, who are subjected to systematic violence, will return to the same social conditions after being ‘hosted’ temporarily in guest houses. The shelters are places where women shelter desperately for their life safety.

“Therefore, we call these places, where the women at risk of male violence shelter, ‘shelter’ rather than ‘guest house’”. (ÇT/TK)