ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – A new survey commissioned by the Grenada government has found that nearly 10,000 citizens have moved from a life of starvation in the last decade.
The country poverty assessment survey carried out by the Trinidad-based Kairi Consultant Limited and funded by the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) noted that nearly 2, 500 people were facing starvation in 2008 compared to an estimated 12,000 a decade ago.
“Indigents are about starvation and a much smaller percentage of the population was facing starvation in 2008 compared to 1998. Things have improved,” said Dr. Ralph Henry, who presented the report.
“More people have moved out of indigents to the extent that there have been more measured programmes in place through the Ministry of Social Development. Your old age pension, they are more social protection measures”.
Persons facing starvation are ranked under the indigent category where annual earnings are a little over EC$2,000 (US$740) a year.
The draft final version of the survey says 2.4 per cent of the population of 110,000 qualifies as indigent.
This represents a significant reduction when compared to an indigent rate of 12.5 per cent from a population of 100,000 when a similar survey was conducted in 1998.
“The school feeding, school books programme a whole range of subsidies including school meals” Henry said, adding “when you look at the data you can see that children in poorer households are taking advantage of the school meals.
“So even if their parents don’t have enough to give them to go to school they get something in school to keep hunger away”.
The survey is reporting the highest incidence of poverty in the northern parish of St. Patrick’s where more than half of the residents were deemed to be poor.
The poverty line was set at nearly EC$6000 (US$2.220) annually, while the vulnerability line was a little over EC$7,000 (US$2,592).
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