Children, poverty, and dignity

Have you ever thought about how a student arrives at school, or in what state of mind?  

Do they only bring themselves from home, for instance?

Or do they also carry the poverty and desperation of their home to school?

There is a reason why I am asking this question.

According to the OECD's 2024 'How's Life?' report, twenty percent of 15-year-old students in Turkey are unable to eat at least once a week because they do not have enough money. 

In other words, one in every five children goes hungry at school and finishes the day without eating.

In other words, just as children bring the poverty from their homes to school, they continue to live with that same reality at school. Because they cannot be properly nourished during the many hours they spend there.

It is not only the data from international organizations that says this, but the state's own figures as well.

Now, with your permission, I would like to continue with what a teacher friend of mine shared with me. 

Specifically, my friend told me the following regarding the meals provided to students at a school with a busing system: A sandwich with salami or cheese, or crackers and a fruit juice!

There was a government that boasted about its prestige while children were in this state, wasn't there?

And it told us that "there can be no austerity in prestige." 

Because they were practicing austerity in children's lunchboxes, in pension payments, in the wages of public employees condemned to poverty, and in many other such items.

Then, those same holders of prestige also rejected the proposal to provide free meals to children in schools. 

Because, according to them, prestige was only remembered when the Palace was concerned. 

And all of this was happening while the country's children were struggling with poverty, helplessness, and a lack of future. On the other hand, at that time, some were talking about sin, some about morality, and some were going door-to-door preaching, but for some reason, they always ignored this reality of the country. It was as if religion were blind to this world, or perhaps they had blinded the eyes of religion. 

Whether this is why reputation loses its meaning, direction, and orientation, we cannot know; what we do know is the state of the children's situation.

Look at this data from the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). According to this institution, Turkey ranks second in child poverty rates at 33.8%, right after Colombia. This is new data, published in 2023. 

And this data tells us the following: one in every three children in Turkey is living in poverty. 

In light of all these realities, a group of the country's deputies rejected the proposal for one free meal for children. These were deputies whose party names include the words justice, development, and nationalist. 

One must ask: how exactly does this stance fit into anything? Is this what justice, development, and nationalism correspond to in your view?

Meanwhile, there are countries that have been providing free meals to their children for years. Finland is at the forefront of these countries. Since the 1940s, that country has been providing free school meals to all children. Moreover, the students themselves determine the choice of menus through a voting method. Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Spain, and Brazil are also among the leading countries that provide free meals to children. The list is even longer. However, we, who pride ourselves on our religion and nationalist identity, are not on it.

So, what is the situation of the children in our country?

Menekşe Tokyay, author of the book "My Stomach is Ringing" (Karnım Zil Çalıyor), describes the general situation of children with these words:

"Some lunchboxes are completely empty, some contain a single simit, and others have bread with tomato paste. Some are hungry, while others feel a momentary sense of fullness, but at the end of the day, while 62 out of 100 children suppress their hunger with pasta and bread, and nearly 7 million children cannot eat meat every day, the number of children whose stomachs are not growling can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Hunger intersects with class-based and geographical inequalities."

There is no such thing as the freedom to go hungry, nor is there a type of freedom called poverty, misery, or helplessness. True freedom is access to services defined as rights. In this sense, freedom is experienced and secured when rights such as nutrition, housing, education, and healthcare are accessed. This is how a society of citizens is built. The meaning of rights and freedom finds its true significance right here. In this respect, the inability to access basic needs—that is, poverty—is a violation of rights; it is a continuation of a kind of slave-society structure. Because neither has a consciousness of rights been built, nor has a social structure based on rights been established. Here, we can speak of neither freedom nor a society of citizens. 

Yet, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection."

When did Turkey accept this declaration? In 1949. What year is it now? 2025!

So, what does the declaration say? Basic needs are a right for all people. If people are deprived of these rights, then their rights have been taken away, usurped, and confiscated. Therefore, where we stand today, every morsel missing from our table, every meal not provided at school, and every need that remains inaccessible has been distributed to others elsewhere. In other words, there is also a massive violation of rights at play.

Therefore, we must find this right we have lost and then restore it.  We have no other option if we want the bleeding wound to stop, the trampled dignity to rise again, and for humanity to find its meaning once more.

Beyond that lies a life of darkness and shame. 

A life just as the poet expresses in these lines:

“crushed

scorned

exploited

disgracefully

of the budding flower

without hearing the cry of the newborn child

fearfully

side by side

a little deeper every day

feeling death a little darker every day

hungry and unsupported

becoming like a dog

if you call that living”

may this heart

burst right open!