Poverty Rising in Thailandby Phairath Khampha 19 November 2001 A World Bank report on Thailand said poverty was re-emerging as one of the country's most serious problems. The report said that the main indicator - the number of people living on an average of less than $20 per month - had increased by five points to 16% between 1996 and 2001. The report Thailand Social Monitor: Poverty and Public Policy said 16 per cent of the country's population, or about 10 million people, as of November 2001 were living on less than the minimal income of 900 baht (US$20) per person per month, which constituted the country's poverty line. Thais in the poorest village in the country get by on only 1.21 baht a day, said Thailand's Interior Ministry on its findings on poverty nationwide. The bank's country director, Ian Potter, said the resumption of reasonable economic growth was now a priority. The bank said poverty reduction measures such as education should be targeted at the poorest villages. Thailand's economic boom ended in 1997 when the value of its currency, the baht, was devalued because so much of the nation's wealth had inherently been stolen by the country's economic and political elite through the rampant corruption that continues - a move which helped trigger an economic crisis across Asia. 10 million survive on 900 baht a month Thailand's remarkable achievement in raising people's standard of living had gone into reverse in the aftermath of the 1997 economic crisis with many having slipped back into the poverty trap, the World Bank said in the report released on November 19. The report Thailand Social Monitor: Poverty and Public Policy said 16 per cent of the country's population, or about 10 million people, as of November were living on less than the minimal income of 900 baht (US$20) per person per month, which constituted the country's poverty line. "Poverty is re-emerging as one of the nation's most serious problems," said Ian Porter - the World Bank's country director for Thailand - at the launch of the new report, which was jointly prepared by the National Economic and Social Development Board, the Thailand Development Research Institute and international experts. The economic boom that preceded the 1997 crisis had brought down the poverty incidence from 32.6 per cent in 1988 to an all-time low of 11.6 per cent in 1996. "High growth rates had a dramatic effect on poverty rates in the 1980s and 1990s, and a resumption of vigorous growth will be essential to reversing these adverse trends," Porter said. However, with unfavourable economic prospects made worse by mainly corruption but also by global uncertainties, the nation would find it even more difficult to reduce poverty. The government, in the latest revision of the country's growth projection, put 2001 gross-domestic-product growth at between 1.3 and 1.6 per cent. The report said that the government - struggling with the challenge of restoring economic growth on the one hand and serving the needs of the poor on the other - must strike a balance in making policy choices and in the allocation of public resources to competing programmes and competing segments of society. Poverty remained unevenly distributed geographically. The Northeast has always been plagued by a more widespread incidence of poverty than other regions, while Bangkok has virtually no poverty. The highest rates are mostly found among the northeastern provinces of Surin, Kalasin, Sakon Nakhon and Roi Et, the northern province of Mae Hong Son and the southern provinces of Narathiwat and Yala. The economic crisis further exacerbated the regional disparities in poverty, as the incidence of poverty increased sharply in the Northeast between 1996 and 1999, somewhat in the South and Central regions - and actually declined in Bangkok and the North. There are many characteristics that correlate with poverty, such as occupation, size of household, rural/urban location and landholding. However, education was at the top of the list. Individuals residing in households headed by people with no education or only primary education were at significantly greater risk of poverty than those in households headed by people educated to secondary or post-secondary level. The poorest households in 1998 (those headed by a person with no schooling or primary schooling) experienced the sharpest drops in real income between 1998 and 1999. Meanwhile, those that were relatively better-off (headed by post-secondary-educated persons) actually experienced an increase in real income in the same period. The report stressed that the government's poverty programmes must target the poorest of the poor. "Block grants and other anti-poverty interventions targeted to the poorest villages are likely to be better use of public funds than universally distributed programmes, at least from an equity perspective," the report's authors said, in reference to the Thaksin administration's populist scheme to provide each of the 70,000 villages with 1 million baht in revolving credit. Porter said the Kingdom had made great strides in reducing poverty, in putting females and the poor in school, and in delivering programmes that helped the poor. "Our message is not that Thailand has failed. Our message is that the poverty problem has come back, probably in a more difficult form - easy to find, but harder to reach. Thailand will have to work harder to reduce it." In particular, if poverty is to be defeated, the corruption must be curbed. Poorest get by on just 1.21 baht a day Thais in the poorest village in the country get by on only 1.21 baht a day, said the Interior Ministry on November 19 on its findings on poverty nationwide. The ministry released the information in response to the World Bank report, which said the incidence of poverty in the Kingdom was worsening. Echoing the report, the Interior Ministry's Community Development Department revealed that the average income of people in about 1,500 villages was lower than 20,000 baht per year, or 666 baht per month. The 20,000 baht annual income is an indicator, apart from other qualitative pointers, used by the government to identify the poor. Officials said the poorest village in the country is Kork Village in Nan Province's Pua District. The average annual income there was 442 baht. The second-poorest is Ta Noi Village in the same district, where people live on an annual income of 648 baht. The Community Development Department had gathered quantitative and qualitative data about the country's poor from 8,144,073 households in 64,900 villages located outside Bangkok and municipal areas. Mae Hong Son is the province with the lowest average income, while Phuket is the richest province. Poorest of the poor Fifteen villages where per capita income is less than 1,000 baht per year: Village District Province Annual Per Capita Income
Kork, Pua, Nan 442 baht
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