Yesterday we echoed a story collected by several Spanish media, according to which Swedish grandmothers who care for their grandchildren would receive a salary of 100 euros added to the pension. We have personally contacted the Swedish Embassy to confirm the information and has denied it: Sweden will not pay a salary to the grandmothers who take care of their grandchildren.
There have been all kinds of opinions on our Facebook profile regarding the measure, many pointing out that it was a good idea, so we apologize And we give you the right information. We also mentioned yesterday the Grandmother Project in Turkey, a country with a reality very different from that of the Scandinavian country, which yes it just got under way in that country.
The response of the Swedish Embassy
It was mentioned that the first phase of a pilot program with a thousand families from the cities of Stockholm and Dalarna had been implemented, whereby grandmothers who receive monthly pensions between 5,600 and 6,600 Swedish kronor (600-700 euros) would charge a salary of 100 euros for taking care of your grandchildren from Monday to Friday for eight hours or more. Thus, the grandmothers would have an extra income and would favor the reinstatement of fathers and mothers.
We have asked the Embassy and they answered the following:
Recall that Sweden is one of the countries in the world with the longest period of maternity and paternity leave, and according to UNICEF is one of the best countries to be a mother due to its advanced policies and family reconciliation aids.
You have a permit from 480 days (16 months) to be shared between father and mother receiving 80% up to 390 days. The father has the obligation to take at least 90 working days from birth. There is only one condition, parents have to share that permission with the mothers. Thus, to promote that both parents raise their children, the Swedish government ordered that 90 of the 480 days be "months for dad" or "months for the couple."
In addition, regardless of their income, they receive financial assistance of around 100 euros per month per child. All children are guaranteed a place in a public nursery and, if it were not available or the parents did not want to use it, they would receive compensation in return.
Grandmother Project in Turkey
Unlike Sweden, in Turkey yes it has been launched as of February the 'Abuela Project', a pilot project with a thousand families in the provinces of Bursa and Izmir, which is intended to be extended to the rest of the country to reach 500,000 grandmothers. Families with children up to three years will be the priority of the program and the grandmothers will receive about 400 lira per month, the equivalent of 100 euros, for taking care of their grandchildren.
The objective of the Government is that more women join the world of work because in recent years the number of working women has decreased from 34.1 percent in 1990 to 30.3 percent in 2015. If grandmothers contribute to the care of Babies in exchange for a salary, mothers can go to work.
There are several criticisms that the measure has received. On the one hand, that only grandmothers are used, and not grandparents, to take care of grandchildren. According to the Platform for Employment and Female Labor (KEIG, for its acronym in Turkish) it is typical of the philosophy of the Islamist Executive to “take care of women” to care for children and circumscribe it exclusively to the home.
That body also complains that in the last ten years the number of public daycare centers in Turkey has dropped from 497 to 56, while the unions complain about the lack of adequate facilities for childcare in the workplace. To this is added that the high prices of private nurseries make many women prefer to leave their jobs and dedicate themselves to childcare.
