Poverty and livelihood strategies of broken families: Elazıg case

Broken poor families does represent the families mostly experiencing poverty, social exclusion and other social problems. This study aims to address the ways poor families break up, how they fall into poverty and how they try to get rid of it. In this context, it is tried to reveal the difference between the poverty of broken families and that of other families by analyzing the concepts of women's poverty and child poverty. Furthermore, livelihood strategies of the female householders are examined too. This research shedding light on the poverty of broken families was conducted in 195 households in the province of Elazig. A questionnaire consisting of 77 questions was applied to women who headed the households. Additionally, the interview data obtained were also taken into consideration. The findings achieved in the research are that female householders can not adequately benefit from job opportunities, they have to work hard labor at low wages, they experience greater social exclusion and poverty as a result of family breakdown. Child labor has been observed to be relatively common in broken families. The rate of receiving alimony and pension have been found to be extremely low. With regard to livelihood strategies, it has been appeared that they have not long-term plans and develop daily strategies. Moreover, it has been seen that the social state mentality developed in recent years alleviates to some degree the poverty of the poor broken families. Keywords: Broken families, poverty, women's poverty, child poverty, social exclusion, livelihood strategies