17/11/2025 | Writer: Kaos GL
In a press release, the Health and Social Service Workers’ Union stated: “The ‘Year of the Family’ narrative continues alongside LGBTI+ hostility. Instead of addressing the problems of women, children, youth, people with disabilities, and the elderly, the Ministry has prepared a fertile ground for sowing seeds of hatred.”
The Health and Social Service Workers’ Union (SES) criticized the budget of the Ministry of Family and Social Services in a statement. The press release was read by SES Co-Chair M. Sıddık Akın.
In the statement, the union said:
“The Ministry of Family and Social Services’ 2026 budget, as in previous years, is far from rights-based social services, labor concerns, and gender equality! It deepens dependency relations and serves the political and policy needs of the government.”
The statement emphasized that the budget allocated for women is one of the few social policy areas to decline from 2024 to 2026:
“The approach that completely removes a gender equality perspective from budget texts has prioritized family-based policies over the protection and empowerment of women.”
Criticizing the so called “Year of the Family,” the union also addressed hostility toward LGBTI+ people, stating:
“Women workers whose wages are unpaid, who are dismissed, or subjected to pressure for joining a union were ignored. The cries of women struggling to survive on meager wages, unable to put food in their children’s school bags, were not considered by the Minister. The ‘Year of the Family’ narrative continues alongside LGBTI+ hostility. Instead of addressing the issues of women, children, youth, people with disabilities, and the elderly, the Ministry has prepared a fertile ground for sowing seeds of hatred.”
The union also highlighted that the Ministry is “dragged along behind the locomotive of political calculations,” adding:
“Looking at poverty and hunger line figures, it is clear that the majority of people outside the privileged minority in Turkey are condemned to conditions unworthy of human dignity. The Ministry of Family and Social Services, which should play the flagship role in combating poverty, appears as a shabby, idle body dragged along behind the locomotive of political calculations.”
The budget proposal allocates 21 billion lira to “protection of the family”
The 2026 Central Government Budget Bill was submitted to the Presidency of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) with the signature of President and AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
In the budget proposal, under the section titled “Distribution of Central Government Budget Appropriations by Programs,” approximately 22 billion Turkish lira (21.804 billion) is planned to be allocated in 2026 to the item “protection and strengthening of the family.” According to the proposal, the allocation is projected to increase to 24 billion lira in 2027 and 26 billion lira in 2028. The heading was first added to the budget proposal in 2021, with allocations of 1 billion lira each in 2021 and 2022, 3 billion in 2023, and 11 billion in 2024. In 2025, the allocation had risen to 16 billion lira.
The funds allocated to the headings “empowerment of women,” “human rights,” and “youth” lag behind the amount set aside for “protection of the family.” In 2026, approximately 8 billion lira is planned to be allocated to “empowerment of women.” Meanwhile, the “youth” item is projected to receive 14 billion lira. Under the section “Distribution of Central Government Budget Appropriations by Programs,” the allocation for human rights did not reach 1 billion lira, remaining at 920 million lira.
Click- The budget proposal allocates 21 billion lira to “protection of the family”
Tags: human rights, women, life, labour, family, lgbti
