TOPLUMSAL ALGI BOYUTUYLA SOKAKTA ÇALIŞAN ÇOCUKLAR: MERSİN ÖRNEĞİ

The present study aims at exploring the phenomenon of working children on streets in terms of social perceptions of people from different levelsof urbanization. The social perceptions as combined forms of attitudes of people toward working children on streets are investigated with regard to two broad categories, such as urbanized and unurbanized, and differences and commanilities of these attitudes of two categories people are analyzed. Within this framework, a field study was conducted on 250 participants living in different locations of Mersin based on a random stratified ratio technique of the population. Besides the field study, detailed interviews were realized on working children on streets and on their families, relatives, teachers, and neighbours. Findings indicated that both categories shared that the children should not work on streets and they should be at schools and benefit from educational resources of the society. Our findings clearly showed that the process of urbanization has already transformed people’s perceptions to child as an economical value and that both categories people from unurbanized and urbanized have started to evaluate the working children on streets as “problem”. On the other hand, people see poverty and deprivation as major causes of the problem and regard that working on street could temporarily be a solution in order to deal with the poverty problems. The present study also aims to notice the cultural codes which help to sustain the phenomenon of working children on streets and tries to set a realistic ground for effective policy-making.