The recent heavy rain and subsequent flooding that occurred throughout Trinidad and Tobago highlights not only the poor, dangerous infrastructure (roads, bridges, drains, canals, rivers) in the country but more importantly the chronic poverty that people are experiencing.It also highlights the shoddy, dangerous houses (shacks) in which so many impoverished citizens of this oil and gas rich country live. Due to their prolonged destitute state and economic hardships, many citizens are struggling to survive on a daily basis and natural events like flooding only propels their socio-economical conditions into the public's domain.
Poverty and poverty related conditions have not received serious governmental intervention in the past, and despite the PNM government spending billions of taxpayers dollars to build incomplete, empty massive buildings in Port-of-Spain, their hosting of the Fifth Summit of the Americas and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2009-money that may never be recovered-poor people in the country are suffering, particularly since they do not have the financial resources to offset the high cost of living, increasing food prices, increasing transportation costs, unemployment and the low minimum wage that many of them receive.
The poverty line (threshold) in Trinidad and Tobago is $2,660 per month for a family of four people. Now, in all honesty, can a family of four survive on such meager earnings? Even with a projected increase in the minimum wage from $9 to $12.50 an hour, it is not expected that dramatic changes would be made to this family's lifestyle since a 40-hour a week salary at $12.50 an hour is worth only $2,000 a month, which is still below the poverty line for a family of four people.
Government ministers (present and past) have stated that 17 per cent of the population are living in poverty, down from 34 per cent in 1992 (but 17 per cent is understated as real poverty is closer to 30 per cent) since squatters, the homeless, students, taxi drivers, maxi taxi drivers, hustlers, part-time employees like Cepep, URP...are not included in the above statistical configuration.Even unemployment is badly understated and the 7 per cent unemployment rate hovers more around 25 per cent when one factors in all the pertinent unemployment factors and count all the unemployed participants not in the labour force.
Sixty per cent of the people employed in Trinidad and Tobago earn less than $3,999 per month and 37 per cent earn less than $1,999 per month. A startling 11 per cent earn less than $500 per month and only 2 per cent earn $13,000 and more per month. This information may be frightening to many and if you do not believe me, the Central Statistical Office would verify their data.
In my latest study of squatting in Trinidad, 76 per cent of the squatters were unemployed and only 24 per cent employed. The occupations of the employed were labourer, domestic worker, seamstress etc. Only 19 per cent worked 35-40 hours a week and the majority (45 per cent) earned less than $500 a week. Twenty per cent received financial help from NIS, public assistance and their children's fathers, while 22 per cent received less than $500 a week from other sources. In the homeless population, all (100 per cent) of the homeless were unemployed and a few earned charity for performing odd jobs for vendors.
When one includes the senior citizens and the $3,000-a-month pension they receive and the senior citizens who for whatever reason do not qualify for a pension (many are returning seniors from foreign countries), the many young, store and other service sector employees whose earnings range from $10 to $20 an hour, and the thousands of low wage security guards who earn from $12 to $20 an hour, the picture is absolutely clear that many of the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago are living in poverty and do not foresee (anytime in the near future) getting out of that poverty.
For them, employment is not a panacea to their poverty woes as they have to work long hours (usually 50-60 hours) in order to obtain a reasonable salary (after taxes). This is further compounded by the burgeoning population of single, poorly educated women with children who do not see marriage as an option for them and thus have to struggle to earn an income to support their children since the children's fathers may have lost interest in both mother and children and do not support either.The People's Partnership Government, in its first budget presentation, stated that they will address the plight of the poor, disadvantaged and vulnerable and made projections to reduce the number of poor people in the country by 2 per cent each year.
Not surprisingly, it was not stated how this poverty reduction rate would be realised. Past PNM governments had also targeted reducing the growing incidence of poverty in the country, but instead of reducing it, poverty has increased at alarming rates.The past PNM governments also guaranteed a decent standard of living for all the citizens of T&T including the most vulnerable in its many budget presentations in its crawl to 2020 Vision status.
In order to accomplish this goal of reducing the poverty rate, the PP Government must identify the real number of people living in poverty in the country and then work towards decreasing the poverty population. Any other approach would be futile and the only desired outcome in serving the people would be to use honest, accurate, real statistics in order to decrease, contain and control the escalating poverty that has engulfed the population of Trinidad and Tobago for such a long period of time.
If the PP Government seriously wants to reduce poverty, special emphasis must be placed on assisting the young, senior citizens, women with children, citizens with disabilities and the chronically unemployed and underemployed citizens and residents of Trinidad and Tobago. Dr L Trevor Grant is the author of Living Dangerously: Squatting in Trinidad and Tobago. Available at Web site www.drltgrant.com