Türkiye Nüfus Politikaları

Today, the increasing population of the elderly in the demographic structure and planning and policies aiming to meet their needs have become an important issue all over the world. The economic, social and physical limitations and inadequacies that occur with old age affect both the social life and active participation of the elderly individuals and their relatives in different areas. Improvements concerning this population group; will affect the social, economic and social welfare levels of the current population, and will support social sustainability by increasing the welfare levels of future generations. The 'development plans' programmed to meet social demands, along with the policies that guide the development of the country, also set out the service targets for the changing population structure. The five-year development plans prepared by the Ministry of Development are strategies and policies targeting the country's developments in social, cultural and economic fields. Eleven development plans, covering strategic plans have been prepared and implemented since 1963. All institutional and structural arrangements are provided by taking into consideration the social life and demographic structure within the scope of Development Plans; and sustainable social, environmental and economic development goals are also set. The aim of the study is to show the change of the policies that is foreseen for the elderly population and progress of the development plans that will meet the needs of the country and ensure its social welfare over the years with a social sustainability perspective. The method for creating the study was examining how the elderly population policies for each five-year period changed over the years by analyzing of all development plans. In this context, the study aims to contribute to the direction in which policies aiming to increase the social welfare and economic life participation of the elderly population should be handled in the context of social sustainability.
Keywords: Development Plans, Old Age, Population Policies, Social Sustainability and Social Welfare.

Özet Nüfus politikaları hükümetlerin nüfusun niceliği, niteliği ve dağılımını etkileyen karar-ları olup; ülkelerin eğitim, sağlık, istihdam, barınma, şehir planlaması, tarım ve sanayideki gelişmeleri de etkilemektedir. Nüfus kavramının, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nin ilk dönemlerin-den itibaren ulusal politikalar içinde önemli bir yeri olmuştur. Yaşanan savaşlar nedeniyle azalan nüfusun, geniş yurt topraklarına göre ekonomik, sosyal, askeri savunma v.b. yönler-den olumsuz bir etki yarattığı düşüncesiyle nüfusu arttırmaya yönelik önlemler alınmıştır. 1960'lı yıllara kadar uygulanan pro-natalist politikalar (doğumları teşvik edici, doğum ora-nını arttırmayı amaç edinen politika) sosyal, ekonomik ve hukuki tedbirlerle desteklenmiştir. Ancak 1950'lerin sonlarına doğru artan nüfusun ekonomik ve sosyal problemlere neden olacağına ilişkin duyulan endişeler, kendini 1963 yılında geçilen planlı dönemde göstermiş ve nüfus artış hızının düşürülmesine yönelik tedbirler alınmaya başlanmıştır. Bu çalışmada nüfus ve nüfus politikası kavramları ele alınarak; Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nin kuruluşundan günümüze uygulanan nüfus politikaları incelenecektir. Abstract Population policies are the decisions of governments that affect the quantity, quality and distribution of the population. These decisions also affect the country's education, health, employment, housing, urban planning, agriculture and industry developments. The concept of the population has an important place in national policies of Turkey since the early days of Republic. Because of the idea that the declining population due to wars would have negative impact on economic, social, military, defense etc, measures were taken to increase the population during the early days of the Republic. Until 1960 the pro-natalist policies (encouraging births, and aiming to increase the birth rate policy), social, economic and legal measures were supported. However, towards the end of the 1950s the concerns about the economic and social problems that the growing population might cause increased. In 1963 the planned measures were taken to reduce the population growth rate. In this study, based on concepts of population and population policy, population policies implemented since the foundation of the Republic of Turkey will be examined.