Poverty in Sri-Lanka: issues and options
This paper discusses the methodology that is being used by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) in computing Official Poverty Line (OPL).. It also gives the definitions of various measures used in measuring poverty for researchers, planners and policy makers who maintain an interest in the poverty situation in Sri-Lanka.
The author argues that with all the governmental interventions to reduce poverty, analysis of surveys conducted by DCS shows that substantial poverty and undernutrition among children still remains, in spite of the gradual reduction. With all the welfare programmes that have been implemented during the last few decades by the successive governments, Sri Lanka could have done better.
Possible options which may help reduce poverty are listed. These include:
- a proper mechanism needs to be developed to identify the destitute poor, before any poverty alleviation programme is implemented
- suitable employment opportunities for educated as well as less educated youth need to be created specially in regions outside Western Province, which are under-developed mainly due to lack of proper infra-structure facilities
- in addition to development of Agriculture and Livestock, strategies to create employment opportunities in other sectors, in the areas with high incidence of poverty, are absolutely essential
- the land belonging to smaller farmers should not be allowed to be taken over to create larger farms, as some times encouraged by some of the International Agencies, unless the farmers themselves get-together to create collective farms.
