Getting poorer and poorer

The 2014 survey found that the number of poor people had increased from 17 to 25 percent, which roughly equates with the current estimated level of illiteracy in this country. Since 2005 the number of people unable to meet their daily nutritional needs has grown four times to 5.6 percent in Trinidad and gone from zero to 4.6 percent in Tobago.

Apparently, this is just one of three reports on living conditions in TT for the Government to consider in its planning. Whatever the methodology or scope of those surveys, increasing poverty is something that should concern all of us since it is impossible to have a civilised and safe society when extreme poverty is widespread.

How we measure poverty has changed. I remember shortly after the Beetham settlement grew up on the edge of the then new highway, as we drove through I would hear grown-ups comment on the fact that the people living there were supposedly poor but had fridges and nice furniture (maybe some newspaper had published shocking pictures of interiors).

At the time, most middle class homes had no fridge, TV, phone or washing machine but many had a car, which the poor did not. Today, almost all poor people own phones even if they are homeless, 40 percent own cars and 92 percent have TVs. Therefore, measuring the effects of poverty upon human beings is a more useful exercise.

Modern adult poverty could be defined as when one cannot meet one’s basic necessities, including food and non-food items that extend to cultural pursuits, holidays etc that others take for granted and so make one feel cut off from society.

For children, poverty is more complex and extremely damaging in all its aspects. It would be good to know what TT’s policy is on child poverty alleviation, for it is there that any attempt to bring society back from the brink must start. The degree of abuse and violence many children are subject to can only create maladjusted adults who repeat the downward cycle into deeper poverty. The abuse need not be only physical; emotional and mental deprivation are equally damaging.

I once witnessed a mother roughly push away and shut up her smart five-year-old whenever he touched her or asked a perfectly reasonable and intelligent question.

Maybe she did not know the answers, or was a poor, exhausted, single parent but he was already an angry child who responded badly to others.

As they left, the little boy struggled down some tall stairs unaided and she made no physical contact with him even as they reached the roadside. For me, that too is child poverty.

I am certain our Government and relevant agencies recognise the critical importance of improving a young child’s home environment but there is little public evidence of how we are addressing this difficult situation.

We can guess that people on low incomes cannot easily clothe their children for school, or allow them to participate in school events, which may cause ridicule and embarrassment and lead to the children eventually abandoning education. We have the terrible statistic of only 40 percent of the population having education beyond primary level and 50 percent of poor people.

We know that life chances are linked to education so we must invest more in early education to target disadvantaged children and at the same time reduce family poverty, which is where life chances start.

It is obvious but difficult, so we urgently need a renewed multidimensional child development policy and time frame for its implementation.