It is surprising to know the government’s acknowledgement of the existing of the poor in the country. In his weekly presidential radio address Maldivian President said that about 40% of Maldivians are below the poverty line. That is approximately120, 000 out of the total population of 300,000 people.

It’s the first time that the Maldivian government has officially acknowledged the existence of poverty in the country to this extent. The Maldivian government so far displayed the poor as a small negligible percentage and unblemished the image with the higher GDP per capita income rate in the country currently holding above US$5200.

To acknowledge the extent of poverty in the Maldives maybe the first step to drastically improve the situation at hand. The new plans unfolded by the president in his latest weekly address to alleviate poverty in the Maldives do however carry some concerns.

President referred to the UN statistics, and said if the government can set aside about Rf 2 billion from the Rf 5 billion wage bill, that will help significantly to improve the quality of life for the poor. He said the government was also working to provide other benefits such as subsidized electricity, subsidized basic foods, and subsidized education, to those in the low income bracket.

The mentioned Rf2 billion taken out of the wage bill currently is used in the payments of the 32000 civil servants that would be reduced to a mere 18000 by the end of the year 2010. This is to say that 14000 government employees would lose their current jobs, the means of their only income. Even though the government has promised that they would not be released off duty without a reasonable amount paid to them, this do create concerns that they might enter into the poverty bracket if they fail to find other ways to earn a living. It is therefore the government’s duty to see to that new job opportunities are available at the time of their dismissal. If the government fails to deliver on this issue at the right moment, this would surface the question that if the Rf2 Billion that would be used is to alleviate or aggravate the current poverty crisis.

So far the new government has implemented social project where 65years of aged people are to be given free medical and MRF 2000.00($155.64) a month. In addition if the government uses the aforementioned amount to ease off the difficulties of the 120,000 poverty stricken citizens, and issue subsidize to them without a long term plan, they might rely on the government to spoon feed them on every matter. To pay the household bills of every poverty stricken residential would be an enormous burden to the newly elected incumbent government. Rather to spend in creating job opportunities with better income, and to produce a better educated society to maximize the potential of its citizens may be a better option, so that every household can pay its own bills.

Poverty in Maldives is multi dimensional. And it is the first time that the government has announced such a plan to tackle this complex problem, which the analysts describe as positive moves taken by the incumbent government.

The government thus have unveiled its plans with the Rf2 billion to tackle this growing concern in our society. But the question remains whether the government’s plan would alleviate or aggravate the current crisis in the long run.