OPINION

Everyone was late

Data show that 20,1 percent of families in Montenegro had disposable income below the poverty threshold last year. 27,3 percent of children aged 0 to 17 live at risk of poverty

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Photo: Shutterstock
Photo: Shutterstock
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, then it cannot preserve the few who are rich." (John F. Kennedy)

According to the World Bank (WB) report, in 2023, around 690 million extremely poor people were registered in the world, as before the Covid-19 pandemic, which increased that number by 70 million. "If this trend continues, in 2030, 7 percent of the world's population, i.e. 575 million people live in extreme poverty," says the United Nations (UN) report. The UN Millennium Development Goals of 2000 and the UN Global Sustainable Development Goals of 2015, which envisioned a world without poverty and hunger by 2030, will unfortunately not be achieved.

The International Day against Poverty, October 17 (recognized by the UN), has been celebrated since 1987, when around 100.000 people gathered in Paris for the unveiling of a monument in honor of victims of extreme poverty, violence and hunger. The goal of celebrating this date is to spread awareness about the need to eradicate poverty in the world, especially in developing countries.

The European definition of poverty was harmonized for the first time in 1975 and is considered the official definition used by the European Union (EU): "Individuals are poor if their income and resources are inadequate to the extent that they enable them to achieve a standard of living that is considered acceptable in the societies in which they live. Due to poverty, multiple threats are possible, which is reflected through unemployment, low income, inadequate housing conditions, inadequate health care and barriers to lifelong learning, culture, sports and recreation. The poor are often excluded, marginalized and do not participate in activities (economic, social and cultural), which represent the norm for others. They are often not even given access to fundamental rights." (Council of the EU)

Monstat data show that 20,1 percent of families in Montenegro had disposable income below the poverty threshold last year - for a family of four with two adults and two children, it was 7.070 euros for the year, or 590 euros per month. In 2022, it was 451, and in 2021, 397 euros, according to Monstat's comparative research on income and living conditions (EU-SILC). 27,3 percent of children aged 0 to 17 live at risk of poverty (data for 2023). The poverty line is growing faster than the income of the population, even than inflation. Specifically, in 2023, compared to 2022, it increased by 30,8 percent, while compared to 2021, it increased by 48 percent.

In addition to the unemployed and people without any income, in extreme poverty in Montenegro are the beneficiaries of material security of the family, who receive monthly from 88 euros (singles) to 170 euros (families with 5 or more members). These people are unable to work and must not have any other income or property. All these categories of the population are discriminated against, because the state does not anticipate their escape from poverty. As commented by the portal vijesti.me, beneficiaries of the lowest pension of 296 euros were significantly below the poverty threshold, even after the increase to 450 euros. Also, employees with a minimum wage of 450 euros live below the poverty threshold, which will continue even after the increase to 600 euros, in the next year, if the poverty threshold increases by more than 1,7 percent.

The increase in salaries and pensions in Montenegro reduced the inequality between the layers of society, so the Gini coefficient for 2023 was 29,4 percent, (for 2022 it was 31,5 percent). The fifth ratio indicates that in 2023, the 20 percent of the population with the highest income earned five (5) times more than the 20 percent with the lowest income, which is a slight change compared to the previous year, when it was 5,6.

Tenant families and, what is alarming, the majority of citizens who cannot afford adequate health care in the public health system live in poverty. Many cannot provide their children with proper education, in some schools there are no conditions for teaching, and peer and other forms of violence are lurking at every step. Tens of thousands of old, infirm and sick people are poor and excluded from society, who cannot be taken care of by all hospital facilities, homes for the elderly, day care centers... etc. It is a shame for sparsely populated Montenegro that the authorities brag about folk kitchens, which are the work of humane and empathetic people...

The union consumer basket in the third quarter of this year, for a family of four (two adults and two students), in the amount of 2.000 euros, is 16 percent higher than the sum of the two average August earnings of 861 euros... In the underdeveloped Republic of Montenegro, after the dissolution SFRY and the fatal wars that followed that sad act, we had politicians in power who "knew how" to, under the auspices of transition and privatization, destroy the economy and stratify Montenegrin society into a small number of rich and the rest of poor citizens, whom they did not take into account . We are still rich in politicians of all formats and ideologies, who "promise hills and valleys" and loot the state coffers, trying to increase salaries and pensions, because, supposedly, "the standard of citizens is their priority". Everyone is late!

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(Opinions and views published in the "Columns" section are not necessarily the views of the "Vijesti" editorial office.)