People are seen in a slum along railroad tracks in downtown Bangkok on June 15, 2020. (Photo by Mladen ANTONOV / AFP)
More than 8.1 million Thais are poor, including 4.4 million living below the poverty line, according to the latest report by The Office of the National Economics and Social Development Council (NESDC).
The report on the poverty situation in Thailand in 2021, released this year, stated that the number of people who are below the poverty line is a decrease from 2020, when 4.7 million such people were recorded. The report attributed the reduction to the economic stimulus schemes, rolled out to ease the financial burden on poorer people.
As income is not the only factor that reflects the poverty situation in Thailand, the NESDC has used the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which identifies four dimensions of poverty; education, healthy living, quality of living and financial stability.
Under this index, it was found that multidimensional poverty is much more severe than poverty which only relates to income. According to this, a total of 8.1 million Thais are suffering from multidimensional poverty, 36.9% of whom are the elderly, while 51.5% are those who do not contribute to the economy, which includes children, the senile, the ill or the unemployed.
Each dimension of poverty in the report reflects several underlying problems. As for education, more children have dropped out of the education system, especially those who do not live with their parents. The report also stated that over 280,000 children and youths ceased their education in 2021 due to poverty.
Under healthy living, people in poverty lack access to clean water, with access still limited to areas that have good infrastructure. People in poverty also experience malnutrition.
In terms of quality of living, 2.8 million people do not have access to the Internet, as the signals do not cover certain locations. Such people also could not afford to pay the Internet service charges.
As for financial security, the lack of social security for workers remains a problem and their earnings are not sufficient to make ends meet, which leads to increasing debt and problems with saving money.
To solve the issues, the NESDC suggests that authorities should develop ways to fix the situation. One way would be to improve the information systems between related authorities, which can be used to improve the quality of life for people, as well as coming up with related policies to solve their problems. They also suggested that authorities create policy packages to solve multidimensional poverty, such as improving financial literacy for workers of all ages.
