Why is poverty so high?

THE EDITOR: The vacillating 30 to 32 percent poverty rate in Trinidad and Tobago is a very disturbing trend. This is so simply on the basis of this government’s pronouncements and demonstrable commitment to reducing the poverty levels in the nation. One must therefore ask, if the government has politicised and implemented policies for rooting out poverty in this country; what is so wrong that the levels continue to stagger. I can identify at least ten programmes on which the government rests its attack on poverty in the country. Broadly speaking, they are of three categories, the first deal with education and training (YTEPP, the National Training Programme and the Citizen Conservation Corps).

The second relates to providing physical and nutritional relief (The Share Programme, the National Commission for Self-Help and NHA). The third category relates to initiatives for business generation and support (CEPEP, NEDCO, SBDC). A fourth category can be identified in image to those of the ministries of social development (through its various social service efforts) and the ministry of community development (through CDF and the CARE Programme). Why then is our poverty rate so unacceptably high? Could it be that none of these programmes is effective? Could it be that there is an administrative problem? Could it be that the benefits of these programmes are not reaching where it is needed? If, after all of the above, poverty is still rampant in this country, then the government has a duty to critically examine its policy and take remedial action. It is no longer acceptable to simply disclose that programmes have been established for poverty eradication, when the reverse effect is the experience in reality.

ALFRED GEORGE
Laventille