After spending $2 billion to $3 billion in the last 22 months, Minister of the People and Social Development Dr Glenn Ramadharsingh is confident that T&T's poverty rate is down. The poverty rate up to 2011, Ramadharsingh said, stood between 17 to 24 per cent. This represents 200,000 citizens living below the poverty line.
But in spite of Ramadharsingh's optimism, a recent poll conducted by the ANSA McAL Psychological Research Centre, University of the West Indies, St Augustine, for the Trinidad &?tobago Guardian, showed that poverty is a major problem in the country. Seventy-eight per cent of the people polled believed poverty was a major problem.
Ramadharsingh said a survey on Living Conditions in T&T, commissioned in 2011 at a cost of $4 million, which sought to provide empirical evidence for a national poverty-reduction strategy was expected to be released shortly. One of the promises made by the People's Partnership Government was to reduce poverty by two per cent every year.
Ramadharsingh said statistics from his office has shown that they have done that. "We have exceeded that. But we are still waiting for the survey of living conditions to support that. I am confident that the poverty rate has fallen." Ramadharsingh said the "People's Partnership Government would have spent at least $2 billion to $3 billion on poverty reduction" in under two years.
The last survey on poverty, Ramadharsingh said, was conducted in 2005. He said he expected a favourable report, stating that his ministry had made inroads to assist the less fortunate in areas such as Point Fortin, La Brea, La Romaine, Mayaro, Caroni, Caparo, Flanagin Town, John John, Icacos, Toco, Salybia, Maracas Bay, Cedros and Sangre Grande.
Poorest living among natural resources
Of these areas, Ramadharsingh said La Brea, La Romaine and Mayaro were considered the poorest, even though they are full of natural resources. However, they were not benefiting from this, he said. "We have done a lot to quell the neglect that was existing in the rural communities. We've had tremendous success."
Ramadharsingh said his confidence rose after seeing those solely dependent on the food card programmes now gainfully employed and empowering themselves through life skills programmes, training and education. By 2015, Ramadharsingh said once the economy picks up, he will do much more. "We will certainly stem the increase."
500 graduated from food card programme
Insisting that T&T has not been immune to the international financial fallout, Ramadharsingh said, "when we look at where we are, we must consider where we could have been. "There is no need to reinvent the wheel. No single ministry can reduce poverty. It must be a multifaceted approach."
Between June to December 2010, Ramadharsingh said his ministry interacted with 32,000 needy citizens offering them social support. Of this figure, only 12,000 individuals applied for grants. Approximately 7,000 food cards were distributed in that year, with over 500 graduating from the programme.
Ramadharsingh said the introduction of a biometric indicator to measure a person's progress out of poverty in T&T was now before the Central Tenders Board. "Each person will have an electronic social fingerprint so we can track our clients and see their progress." Once the contract has been awarded, Ramadharsingh said things would be put in motion.
UN-Poverty to halve by 2015
The Millennium Declaration has set 2015 as the target date for achieving most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which established quantitative benchmarks to halve extreme poverty in all its forms. As that date approaches, the world finds itself mired in an economic crisis that is unprecedented in its severity and global dimensions.
Progress towards the goals was now threatened by sluggish or even negative economic growth, diminished resources, fewer trade opportunities for developing countries, and a possible reduction in aid from donor nations, a 2009 United Nations' MDG report stated. The report stated that worldwide, the number of people living in extreme poverty in 2009 is expected to be 55 million to 90 million higher than anticipated before the global economic crisis.
Globally, the report explained that the target of reducing the poverty rate by half by 2015 seems likely. The war against hunger, the report explained, must be embraced with renewed vigour. Those considered extremely poor accounted for slightly more than a quarter of the developing world's population in 2005, compared to almost half in 1990.
However, some regions will fall short, and as many as one billion people are likely to remain in extreme poverty by the target date. More than one quarter of the children in developing regions are underweight for their age, stunting their prospects for survival, growth and long-term development.
Major advances in the fight against extreme poverty from 1999 to 2005 are likely to have stalled. During that period the number of people living on less than US$1.25 a day decreased from 1.8 billion to 1.4 billion. High prices for energy and commodities in early 2008, exacerbated by a severe economic downturn in the second half of the year, are likely to have had a significant negative impact on the proportion of working people living in extreme poverty.
While there has been a dramatic fall in the poverty rate in Eastern Asia, elsewhere, progress has been slower and in some regions, growing populations have caused the ranks of the destitute to swell. Africa counted 100 million more extremely poor people in 2005 than in 1990 and the poverty rate remained above 50 per cent.
Too few people getting too much
Mal-distribution of resources in T&T has also been fuelling the poverty rate. Senior lecturer in the Department of Behavioural Sciences Dr Ronald Marshall said this was so because, "You have too few people getting too much." To compound matters, Marshall said too many poor people were living beyond their means.
Marshall said it was not a question of identifying how many people live in poverty, but examining the conditions and structural aspects of those living below the poverty line, which are not aligned. He stated that people who are certified are not getting jobs, while people who are unqualified have been collecting two and three salaries due to nepotism.
Marshall said there was a link between poverty and crime, which needed to be addressed. "If a mass of poor people are not agonising, it meant they were not carrying the status of poor, nor experiencing the negative impacts of poverty or showing signs of being destitute." While Cepep and URP have been providing minimum-wage jobs, Marshall said society has been bouncing from problem to problem because of rampant individualism. "While there is a group of poor people, another set was being marginalised and getting poorer."
Marshall: Get rid of dependency syndrome
Marshall said the coming on-stream of the Ministry of the People to reach the needs of the most vulnerable has not helped, since poverty has gotten progressively worse. He said the reason why the ordinary man cannot see poverty is because "it is being masked." They see the destitute by how they look.
"But there are a lot of poor people who are living beyond their means because of the cars they drive, places they associate and the people they hobnob with. That will not give you a sense that they are poor." The next position, Marshall said, was that some people are resource-base poor, where they don't have any savings, pensions and nest eggs.
"But they are in illegal activities. "Are they still poor or are they not poor?" Those who engage in legitimate activities, Marshall said, are agonising because they are forced to do it, as they throw blame on the structures of society and the Government. Marshall advised Ramadharsingh to identify poor households and develop a system where they can get people to work rather than collect money or handouts from the State.
"We have to get rid of the dependency syndrome."
Ratings
Do you think that poverty is a major problem in this country? (by education)
University Tech/Vocational Secondary Primary
Yes 74% 80% 83% 75%
No 22% 20% 11% 23%
Don't Know 4% 6% 2%
