Relationship between disadvantaged groups and local politics: A study on cases in Van, Diyarbakir, Mardin metropolitan municipality

The concepts of disadvantaged groups, social risk groups, handicapped groups, marginal groups refer to individuals that cannot participate and cannot be integrated in economic, social, cultural and political activities due to their own reasons each, and cannot benefit from social facilities adequately and thus participate in policy and decision-making processes inadequately or not at all.This study focuses on women, disabled and LGBTI among the disadvantaged groups.The fact that women, people with disabilities and LGBTI people are considered disadvantaged in the society has a close relationship with their being deprived of democratic opportunities such as participation, representation and equality. The inability of local governments to produce adequate and appropriate policies for disadvantaged people, especially women, disabled and LGBTI, causes disadvantaged groups to experience challenging conflicts in urban life.Just as these problems stem from the approach of local governments to disadvantaged groups, they are also closely related to the disadvantaged groups' inadequate participation in the management, decision and policy processes of local politics.In this context, the aim of the research is to determine the status of the disadvantaged groups within the borders of the local government, non-governmental organizations and the level of stakeholder activities of the disadvantaged groups.Within the scope of the study, the policies of Van, Diyarbakır and Mardin Metropolitan Municipality towards women, disabled and LGBTI individuals, as well as the studies of civil society organizations operating in these provinces and their expectations from local governments were investigated and their disadvantages were examined. Key words: Women, Disabilities, LGBTI, Local Politics, Disadvantaged Group