Ultra-Poor Revisited: a Case of Southern Thailand Sirirat Taneerananon
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World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Environmental and Ecological Engineering Vol:8, No:4, 2014 Ultra-Poor Revisited: A Case of Southern Thailand Sirirat Taneerananon attention on poverty policies and poverty reduction faded to Abstract—This paper presents the results of a study of the ultra- the background as the occurrence of internal politics, political poor in the south of Thailand, revisited after 10 years since the differences, oil crisis, world economic crisis had diverted original study in 2000. The original study was conducted in four focus from the continuity of poverty reduction projects. provinces. The first two namely Phatthalung and Nakorn were chosen The ultra-poor study in southern Thailand was carried out in to represent the Thai Buddhists and the others, Satun and Pattani 1999 as a regional project of the nationwide Project on the were chosen to represent the Thai Muslims. For this study, only the results from the three provinces except Pattani are reported as it was Ultra-poor in Thailand funded by the Thailand research fund difficult and dangerous to conduct fieldwork in Pattani due to the (TRF). The results showed that there was prevalence of continued unrest in the area since 2005. poverty among the Thai Muslims in the lower south of The objectives of the study are to find out the changes of the Thailand. Factors that caused poverty were employment poverty situation after 10 years and to see the impacts of the poverty opportunities and abilities to work, lack of capital and reduction projects implemented by the government on the poor. The resources, debts, high fertility and problems from children. research methodology used both quantitative and qualitative methods. The same villages in the four provinces studied in 1999 were again However, the strong sense of community is deep rooted in the chosen. In each village, five ultra-poor people and heads of the south and significantly contributed to reduce the severity of villages were interviewed. The results show that the poverty situation poverty problem. Furthermore, the study also came across of the ultra-poor groups has not changed much since they lacked the sudden poverty resulted from the falling prices of agricultural basic key factor to get themselves out of poverty: The ownership of produces and rubber, which is the major economic crop of land. Their chronic poverty situation has been passed on from the last southern Thailand [1]. generation. In the province of Phatthalung, the ultra-poor have improved in terms of economic situation because of the big increase From then on, the poverty situation in Thailand has received in the price of rubber. However, the same could not be said for other more attention and the poor have their income and quality of provinces. Even though the government’s projects have not reduced life improved. However, not all assistance has reached down the poverty directly, the projects have significantly contributed to the to the poor. Despite all the short comings, the number of the improvement of the quality of life of the poor and the people in the poor people dropped down from 11.5 million in 1999 to 9.6 areas. million in 2009 which were approximately 20%. But the income per capita has almost doubled, for example, for Keywords—Poverty, Southern Thailand, Ultra-poor. Phatthalung province, one of the poorest provinces in the south; it went from 29,353 baht in 2001 to 47,898 baht in 2005 I. INTRODUCTION [2], [3]. The overall improvements could be attributed to INCE 1997 the poverty situation in Thailand has become booming tourism, the high price of rubber, and the benefits Sone of the national issues during the time of the from decentralization efforts of various Thai governments government headed by the then Prime Minister Thaksin starting three decades ago. Shinawatra. This coincided with the policy of the World Bank, The unrests in the lower south of Thailand since 2005 have United Nations and governments in various countries which made the poverty situation in the south more special and determined to eradicate poverty out of the world. In Thailand, sensitive. The map of poverty and the ultra-poor study show there were several projects set up to eradicate poverty such as that pockets of poverty were deep rooted in the three border Thirty-baht Universal Health scheme, Village fund, Poverty provinces in the lower south and Satun province where the Fund, One Tambon, One Product project (generally known as small scale fishermen were one of the poorest groups. The OTOP). After several studies on poverty conducted by unrest situation has disrupted the normal way of everyday life NESDB, Thailand Research Fund, The World Bank, Asian and obstructed the poverty reduction projects and other Development Bank, the poverty –reduction projects had development projects from reaching down to the poor, thus materialized during the second term of Prime Minister deterring government efforts to alleviate the poverty. International Science Index, Environmental and Ecological Engineering Vol:8, No:4, 2014 waset.org/Publication/9997919 Thaksin Shinawatra. These included the Enlistment of the The world economic crisis in 2008 and the oil price crisis poor, the Fish Bank, the Poor’s Housing. The Poverty have had direct impacts on the poor. Since the Ultra-poor Tracking study to investigate corruption and ensure that the study conducted in 1999, it is important that the poverty government’s assistance and resources reached the poor were situation should be revisited after a decade in order to study carried out based on the World Bank model to ensure the poor how the situation has changed, after the poverty reduction were really the beneficiaries. After the coup d’état in 2006, the projects have been implemented in the areas. The results of the study will be useful in providing future directions in poverty reduction policies. SiriratTaneerananon is Associate Professor of Sociology with Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Thailand 90112 (e-mail: [email protected]). International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 8(4) 2014 963 scholar.waset.org/1307-6892/9997919 World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Environmental and Ecological Engineering Vol:8, No:4, 2014 II. OBJECTIVES higher income from the big increase in rubber price over the 1. To study the poverty situation in southern Thailand over last 4-5 years (from 13 baht in 1999 to 129 baht in 2011).The the 10 years period from 1999 to 2009. high rubber price helped raise the economic status of the 2. To assess impact of the poverty reduction projects of the rubber planters who experienced sudden poverty in 1999 when government on the poor in southern Thailand especially rubber price fell extremely low. Another important finding is the target groups. the change of occupation of the poor in the studied areas. In 3. To obtain the data and monitor the situation of poverty in Phatthalung, some poor farmers have changed from rice southern Thailand to use for planning and policy. farming to rubber planting or to work more as hired laborers. In 1999, the poorest groups of the Ultra poor were the rice III. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK farmers and the small-scale fishermen. The rice farmers also earned more from laboring jobs than rice farming which was Government their primary occupation. Poverty 1999 Poverty 2009 projects Over the past ten years, the situation for the small- scale fishermen has not improved much due to the continuous Fig. 1 Concept of the study depletion of marine resources and the rising price of petrol which makes it very costly to go fishing and not getting IV. SCOPE OF THE STUDY enough in return [4]. Purposive Sampling was used to choose 4 provinces According to the village leaders, numerous poverty selected for research on the Ultra Poor in the south in the reduction projects from the government have changed the 1999-2000 study which was classified as poor under the poverty situation to the better in many directions. Even though criteria of national per capita income. For the upper south, two some projects did not directly result in increasing the income provinces namely Phatthalung and Nakorn Si Thammarat were of the poor but they helped elevate the quality of life of the chosen to represent the Thai Buddhists and for the lower poor. The standard of living of the villagers has thus south, the province of Pattani and Satun were chosen to improved. The village leaders were satisfied with the projects represent the Thai Muslims. For each province, four villages that allowed people to have decision making power and were chosen and in each village, five to six poorest persons participated in the projects. But some expressed opinions that were selected from the village’s list of the poor. A total of 347 the government had not directly responded to the needs of the samples from 65 villages, together with the village leaders poor. The government had not consulted with the poor before were selected for interviewed, 52 leaders were interviewed launching the projects. And there were no serious follow- ups from 65 villages. on the projects [5]. Better roads are the key infrastructure that helped improve V. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY the quality of people’s lives. Some villages visited after ten The research methodology used both quantitative and years have improved significantly in terms of physical qualitative methods. Questionnaires were used to interview the conditions. Roads also enabled the transport of agricultural poor, village leaders and government officials. For qualitative produce to the market easily and improved the health of the method, the in-depth interview and the focus group discussion villagers as they could go to hospital easier and quicker.