Up To 8m Thais Below Poverty Line

Up to 8m Thais below poverty line, says PM

As many as 8 million Thais are living under the poverty line and 5 million have already registered for the government's poverty-alleviation campaign, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said in his weekly radio address yesterday.

The total amount of debts owed by those who have registered had yet to be sorted out because some debts had been listed twice, by both husbands and wives, Thaksin said.

He praised the Interior Ministry for its analysis of the information gathered in the registration process and said this would help define the extent of the problems poor people face.

Currently, there are 5,006,000 Thais registered in the programme. Of them, 3.2 million reported debt problems, 2.6 million reported land-related problems, and 1.2 million lack of adequate housing.

The number of Thais registered in the programme is expected to reach 8 million by February 29.

Village headman will be responsible for verifying information gathered so that an accurate picture of the problems faced by poor people can be arrived at.

The government will start solving the problems this year, Thaksin said. It will start by refinancing debts and next year land surveys will be conducted to allot plots to landless people, he said. The Ua Athorn ("We Care") housing programme will address housing and security needs, he added.

At the same time, long-term loans will be made available to finance home building, Thaksin said. Illegal jobs should be made legitimate and the homeless will have their morale boosted, he added. Thaksin also said that the public sector would provide 30,000 jobs during the upcoming summer vacation for students who must work to pay for their education.

--The Nation 2004-02-01