T&T’S POVERTY CRISIS

MORE than 300,000 people in Trinidad and Tobago cannot afford to put three meals on the table each day. 

Some go several days without a proper meal. 

That means that toddlers and school-age children are also underfed and malnourished, and, in some cases, physically and mentally ill. 

With inflation soaring to a 40-year high, people are continually falling under the poverty line, unable to pay their rents, buy the essentials of life and service their debts. 

Banks are confirming that more and more are not meeting their monthly loan commitments, and supermarkets say there is worsening pilfering of food items, including baby formulas. 

A cross-section of economists, bank officials and other stakeholders estimated that 300,000 people are in abject poverty, unable to eat properly and look after the medical welfare of their respective families. 

And the immediate future is even gloomier. 

Joblessness is expected to grow beyond the current estimated 150,000 workers, the worst rate since the dismal 1980s. 

The unemployed includes displayed workers of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) – so-called “mom and pop” stores – of which at least 6,000 have permanently closed in recent months. 

Those who remain on the job market have to do with median 2013 salaries while the cost of living has skyrocketed and is projected to further climb in the forthcoming months. 

Some former oil workers are now selling vegetables at makeshift market stalls. 

A sacked chemical engineer told me he utilised his severance pay to buy a maxi taxi, which he leased, and now uses his earnings to buy groceries. 

Charities, including food-drop groups like Sewa, and services organisations, like Food for the Poor, are reporting ever-growing demands. 

“There is a level of desperation I have not seen before,” said an official of a Port of Spain-based Non-Governmental Organisation. 

Now institutions are also providing such personal items as feminine napkins. 

As destitution worsens, more mothers are appearing on the sidewalks – sometimes with their emaciated children – sacrificing their dignity in pleading for money to buy food. 

“I have to take my children out of school,” a forlorn woman outside of a bank told me, “because I have nothing to give them to eat”. 

Even by the World Bank’s definition of the poverty line is US $1.90 (about TT $13) a person a day, hunger and malnutrition are growing in Trinidad and Tobago. 

Since the Government has not kept its 2015 general election manifesto promise to modernise the Central Statistical Office, updated figures are not available but there is a sea of anecdotal data to indicate the woeful national condition. 

A manager of a chain of supermarkets said more people are being held with stolen consumables, such as cheese, biscuits and sausage. 

An official of a regional health authority confirmed that an increased number of children are being brought in chronic problems, including low weight and concerns over mental issues. 

Homelessness appears to be on the rise.  

The real estate market is flooded with simple houses, as struggling families seek to raise money to feed themselves. 

Sales are flat, according to a recent country report by Global Property Guide, and “a mortgage market crisis looms”. 

Non-performing real estate loans are 28 per cent higher than in previous years. 

There is a new migration surge, similar to what took place in the mid-1980s when the economy crashed and there was widespread desperation. 

Scores of families have fled the country, some placing their homes on the real estate market. 

Economists forecast increased food prices within the next few months, as the crippling impact of the Russia-Ukraine crisis hits food-importing nations. 

With Russia and Ukraine being mass food producers, countries like T&T – with an annual $6 billion food importation bill – would be impacted in a profound manner, as supplies dry up. 

In all of this, the Rowley Government has made no efforts to boost domestic food production. 

Instead, the inequitable distribution of scarce foreign exchange has led some importers to patronise the lucrative black market, leading to steeper prices on the shelves. 

International organisations define poverty as a lack of income to ensure sustainable livelihoods, and Trinidad and Tobago is officially committed to ending this scourge, as a signatory to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. 

But T&T is heading in the other direction, with starvation and lack of access to basic services sweeping the land. 

This is taking place while each bank is reporting increased profits. 

While small businesses were closed during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Massy Group was allowed to remain open and reported a 36 per cent increased profit. 

The gap between rich and poor is widening, as the working class is landing on the breadline or struggling on lower incomes, and housewives are forced to reduce spending in groceries. 

Frills, such as streaming movie services and weekend cookouts, are being sacrificed, affecting providers of goods and services.  

The Government’s welfare support is equitable and insufficient and is politically tilted to assist cronies of the ruling regime. 

In fact, poverty remains a silent crisis, with Finance Minister Colm Imbert telling a mythical tale of economic turnaround while the poor man’s belly rumbles. 

To be sure, the pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war and supply chain logjams are creating poverty and inflation issues around the world. 

But visionary societies, like Britain, have instituted several poverty alleviation measures, including widened social safety nets, greater allocations to the destitute, improved children’s health care, expanded agricultural production. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has met the crisis head-on, outlining a specific plan and facilitating a vigorous debate in Parliament. 

Johnson has made child poverty his number one priority, saying that his measures have taken 400,000 kids out of deprivation. 

On one of the few occasions in which Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley has spoken about poverty – in October 2019 – he told of an eradication programme to include certain social programmes. 

They have been no further statements on the subject. 

In that declaration, Rowley berated nationals, saying “We are doing better than a whole lot of people in the world”. 

The Government also has a National Poverty Reduction Strategy. 

The reality on the ground is dramatically different. 

Surveyors for a report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reported a woman as saying: “You get up in the morning and don’t even have something to make a cup of tea, can’t take the children to doctor or a taxi to get to the health centre”. 

The report told of people becoming suicidal, sad, depressed, angry and ashamed, as a result of poverty. 

“Poor is a hurtful word,” a young man told the investigators. 

A father stated: “Some children have to stay home to work, or work in the garden and don’t go to school”. 

The UNDP linked poverty to child labour and exploitation “where children engage in paid work to support the household”. 

The poor are also adversely affected with respect to access to health care, according to the report, with conditions of diabetes, hypertension and heart disease being more prevalent. 

The UNDP report outlined specific economic and social areas for improvement for those mired in deprivation. 

But there is little national discourse on poverty and even less official action to combat a life-and-death matter. 

And the worse is yet to come.