It is indeed unfortunate that when we discuss poverty in this country, the subject becomes a political football and is not debated as objectively as it should. The subject itself is very complex as, even internationally, the reasons for poverty are still not fully understood and how to define poverty is still unclear and may be subject to different opinions. Equally unclear is how these various definitions of poverty and these various reasons for poverty apply to Malta.

In certain respects, our country has been fortunate enough to have successive governments from 1964 onwards (the year Malta became an independent nation for those who are less knowledgeable of our country’s history) who have always strengthened social welfare programmes. There were governments that gave importance to certain areas, such as education, and governments that gave priority to other areas, such as welfare benefits.

However, we have never had a government that weakened social welfare and today we have free education and health from the cradle to the grave, we have an array of social benefits covering various circumstances that contribute to a person becoming at risk of poverty, we have a state pension and a minimum wage and we have a number of initiatives, such as social housing.

All of these should have contributed over the years to having less material poverty in our country. However, by whatever definition or indicators we use to measure poverty, there are still persons in our county who are at risk of poverty or have fallen below the poverty line.

Addressing poverty issues, even though they impact around 10 per cent of the population according to research, requires a concerted effort by everyone

It really does not matter how many there are, as whether it is one or 100, or 1,000, or 10,000, poverty is very much an individual issue. Even having one person living below the poverty line is a tragedy for the individual. It is also a tragedy for the country as our objective should always be to eradicate poverty like we have eradicated illnesses.

There are two fundamental points to consider. First, we have traditionally looked at poverty from just one perspective – material poverty, that is the ability of a person to have enough money to feed oneself, to have shelter and other such indicators.

However, there are other forms of poverty that we have to contend with other than material poverty – social, educational and cultural poverty. In effect, today there are persons who are not materially deprived but suffer other deprivations such that one should consider them as being at risk of poverty.

This leads to the second point. To eradicate poverty, we need to target a number of factors that contribute to the well-being of an individual. There have been times when it was felt that providing more financial resources would resolve the poverty problem.

Financial resources on their own would not address the poverty problems in Malta, as we require a change in attitude, a change in culture and a change in aspirations. More financial aid would go part of the way but not all the way.

When discussing poverty, some tend to look the other way, on the basis that since they pay their taxes, they expect the government to look after the poor.

Addressing poverty issues, even though they impact around 10 per cent of the population according to research, requires a concerted effort by everyone. Unless we do this, inequalities in our society are bound to increase, like they have increased in other countries.