Turkey is launching a pilot project to provide state salaries for grandmothers taking care of their grandchildren at home, while their mothers are at work.
The program is designed to increase employment among women.
The new initiative will allow women with small children to have a full-time job and earn more money, while, at the same time, giving elderly women an opportunity to have an additional source of income.
The average pension in Turkey is about 1,000 to 1,800 Turkish liras ($250-450). For the care of their grandkids, the grannies will receive an additional 400 Turkish liras ($105) a month, as Turkish Minister of Labor and Social Security Mehmet Muezzinoglu stated in an interview with CNN.
The pilot program is set to be launched in February 2017. It will cover one thousand families in two provinces, Bursa and Izmir and, if successful, it will be extended to other Turkish regions.