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A change of attitude on poverty

13 Oct 2022

A recent local study estimated that a staggering number of 9.6 million Sri Lankans are living in poverty, which is an increase of 300% from the estimated number of people below the poverty line in 2019, i.e. three million. According to Prof. Wasantha Athukorala of the University of Peradeniya, the study had further revealed that 42% of the population is in poverty. These alarming statistics were revealed in a context where the welfare benefit fast-track programme “Leave No One Behind”, which was launched targeting low-income families, has received around 2.3 million applications.  Given the rapid and significant decline in income and the increase in the prices of essentials, this increase in poverty is not surprising. However, addressing the situation is going to be challenging both in terms of resources and time, and is also affected by the perception of poverty.  Even though the massive increase in the number of people in poverty became more apparent recently, especially in the context of the economic crisis, poverty is an issue that has been brewing for decades, and through generations, in Sri Lanka. However, the issue has been exacerbated by successive governments’ short-sighted and ineffective decisions that, in effect, worsened poverty. The chief measure aimed at supposedly alleviating poverty was the introduction of relief programmes such as the Samurdhi programme. While such programmes have the potential to help the underprivileged, successive governments completely ignored the fact that such programmes are meant to merely provide short-term relief, and are not a solution to poverty. To make matters worse, governments relied heavily on such programmes, and the extension of support to the underprivileged, to garner votes. In other words, to a considerable degree, poverty has worsened to this level due to the normalisation of carrying out short-term relief programmes, instead of taking sustainable action to eliminate the root causes of poverty. The result is that relief programmes became cornerstone of the finances of many underprivileged families, while governments made it a habit to take pride in expanding relief programmes, conveniently setting aside the fact that the need for more relief programmes indicates a rise in poverty – far from a success story. So what should Sri Lanka have done? Instead of making it a priority to support underprivileged families through the provision of funds, the authorities should have prioritised methods to empower them with the knowledge and opportunities to build their finances. What these families were in need of was a stable and adequate source of income, and any government that sought to eliminate poverty should have thus provided them the resources, knowledge, and a supportive environment for these families to build a stable source of income. While proposals for various such programmes are quite common, especially during the election season, it is obvious that only a meagre number of them actually materialised and were successful. As far as alleviating poverty is concerned, the ongoing economic crisis is a test and an opportunity for the Government to prove whether it is going to follow the path of relief programmes as previous Governments did, or take necessary measures to finally actually reduce poverty. To do that, it has to do what previous governments promised but did not, i.e. uplifting the finances of the underprivileged through providing assistance to be self-employed, providing vocational training, and guiding them to commence business ventures that could be initiated with the available resources, among others. While that may be an extremely challenging task due to inadequate financial resources, that is an essential task that deserves to be implemented by some means or other. The Government can postpone the inevitable by continuing to provide relief, which will only make people dependent on the same. However, that only means that the Government will have to continue to provide such relief in the near future.  


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