Slight drop in hunger, poverty insignificant, says group

NEWS RELEASE
20 April 2010

The urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) is "unimpressed" with the latest SWS survey results indicating a slight drop in self-poverty and food-poverty numbers, saying that the explanations are right there within the results.

"The numbers aren't going up, because people's standards are simply going down," said Leona 'Nanay Leleng' Zarsuela, Kadamay national chair. "And if you think about it, this in itself is alarming. It means that people are expecting less and less of government being able to improve their condition, so they simply downgrade their standards to what's given them. In a word, resignation."

"The reason why self-rated poverty is relatively low and at the same time hunger is relatively high," SWS notes, "is because living standards have dropped so low that many families do not rate themselves as poor even if they suffered from hunger recently."

Also, the group noted that while the numbers have slightly dropped from last month, the decrease is insignificant when viewed against the overall trend during President Arroyo's nine-year term.

"Looking at the charts, hunger has generally been on the rise from 2001 to 2010, even as self-rated poverty has dipped. This means that SWS' explanation may be applied to the trend as a whole: people continuously tightening their belts, even as more and more have felt hunger," Nanay Leleng said.

"And this is nothing for Malacanang to carp about." ##

Reference: Leona 'Nanay Leleng' Zarsuela, Kadamay national chair
For further details, please contact Jon Vincent Marin, Kadamay PIO | 0910.975.7660