POVERTY in Fiji has impacted 24.1 per cent of our population, said Minister for Agriculture and Waterways Vatimi Rayalu.
While delivering his ministerial statement in Parliament recently, Mr Rayalu said the estimated figure was obtained from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey for the period 2019 to 2020.
“Based on the estimation for population for the year 2020 and the last Household Income Expenditure report for the 2019-2020 period, there are approximately 55,000 households in Fiji that are living in poverty,” he said.
“”Poverty is a bottle neck to socio-economic development, thus if we are to improve the quality of people’s lives in Fiji, greater efforts must be made by government to fight and reduce poverty.
“We must understand that the fight against poverty, in reality is a fight against drug and substance abuse particularly against our youth, domestic violence against women and exploitation of children among the many social ills.”
He said this led to many socials’ ills, such as drug and substance abuse, domestic violence, suicide and exploitation of children to name a few.
“Poverty is a cancer that is eating away at the very flesh muscle and bones of society that must be addressed head on by government in partnership with relevant stakeholders.”
