Christmas is a special time for children. It is also a time when people donate generously to the poor. I could not attend Dr Sookram's presentation on poverty at UWI's Salises (Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies) in November, but I am glad that it was reported on in the Business Guardian (Nov 27). There seems to be a large discrepancy between the estimates of poverty made by Sookram and those made by Kairi Consultants Ltd, despite using the same poverty line of $665/person per month.
One UWI professor questioned the scale used for children, and it is possible to get into a lot of debate on what is the "correct" scale to use.�But the mere fact that using different scales for children can lead to such divergent results suggests to me that there is widespread poverty among children in this country. Another difference is that the Kairi estimates used CFNI (Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute) estimates of food requirements, while Sookram used World Health Organisation requirements. I think there are advantages and disadvantages with either approach.
Sookram's approach using WHO standards would allow us to compare poverty rates between different countries that use the same measurement of poverty. Therefore it would be interesting to compare the poverty rate in T&T with other countries using the same WHO standards and scales etc. Then we would get a clearer picture of where we stand.
My suspicion is that there is severe poverty afflicting children in this country and much of it goes unnoticed and unmeasured. I urge people to try to help the less fortunate this Christmas. One does not have to do it directly as there are numerous NGOs, religious organisations etc who do very good work among the poor. Go ahead and contribute to one that you know and trust.
Charles de Matas
Trincity