Eliminate the idea of ​​wanting to be poor to enjoy policies

(Baonghean) - Why are the results of poverty reduction still not as expected? There are many reasons pointed out, but the main reason is the human factor. Through the supervision of the Provincial People's Council Standing Committee, it can be seen that not only a part of the poor, but also villages, hamlets, communes... want to be poor to benefit from the policy.

» Inadequacies in business models and vocational training

Poor communes do not want to… escape poverty

The monitoring process in mountainous, plain and coastal areas in the province by the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council shows that almost all assessment reports of commune and district-level localities clearly indicate the cause and limitation that a part of the poor still have the mentality of waiting and relying on others, and have not made efforts to escape poverty and get rich.

According to the classification of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the whole province has more than 7,478 households belonging to the province's social protection objects, accounting for more than 9.33% of the number of poor households. These objects are people with disabilities, orphans, lonely elderly people with no place to rely on,... lacking the ability to work, so it is difficult to escape poverty.

But there are also about 65% of poor households that are still of working age, but why they are still poor is something to think about and worry about.

Vice Chairwoman of the Provincial People's Council Cao Thi Hien talks with the family of Ms. La Thi Dung, a re-poor household in Na Luong 1 village, Huu Kiem commune (Ky Son). Photo: Thanh Duy

Statistics on the policies that the poor currently enjoy can partly explain the reasons for the above situation. Regarding general policies, the poor currently enjoy preferential credit, support in health care, education, housing, electricity, vocational training, and legal aid.

In addition, poor districts and poor households also benefit from component projects under the National Target Program for Sustainable Poverty Reduction, including: Program 30a, Program 135, support for production development, livelihood diversification outside of Program 30a and Program 135; provincial policies to support communes with a poverty rate of 30% or more and support sources from socialization.

It can be said that the design and promulgation of these policies are completely correct, demonstrating the tradition of "helping each other", the care of the Party, State and the whole society for the poor and poor localities.

Through these policies, many poor people have risen out of poverty, but the reality is that a part of the poor people rely on these policies to not want to escape poverty, even having a mentality of waiting and relying heavily in order to benefit from the policies. The mentality of waiting and relying heavily of a part of the poor people has not only been mentioned now, but this has been a headache for those who plan, issue and implement policies.

Referring to this situation, Vice Chairman of Que Phong District People's Committee, Mr. Lang Van Minh, likened the current poverty reduction policy to "spreading out the hand" without a focus or key point. To reduce poverty sustainably, it is necessary to first accurately classify poor households: For elderly households without support or households without labor, the State identifies these as households in need of protection; for households that are actively working, wishing to access capital, science and technology and other production conditions to escape poverty, there needs to be support and encouragement policies.

Avoid giving away for free because in reality, there are households that are given a calf to take care of and have the conditions to escape poverty, but when someone in the family dies, they slaughter it for offerings.

Agreeing with this existence, some members of the Provincial People's Council's monitoring delegation said that such an assessment was still unsatisfactory. Based on actual data, although the investment and support sources for poverty reduction were large, only 4 communes and 25 villages were removed from Program 135 in the 2011-2016 period, but on the contrary, the list of communes under Program 135 continued to add 1 more commune.

Besides, there is also the reality that officials also want poor communes and poor districts to enjoy the regime. Thus, there is a mentality that not only the people but also the villages, communes, and even districts do not want to escape poverty...

Need to assess the situation correctly

Thus, propaganda and raising awareness of the poor and officials in some localities is also a very important issue in implementing sustainable poverty reduction solutions. At the supervision meeting of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council in Ky Son district, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoang - Chairman of the People's Committee of this district said that each year the locality has about 1,000 students graduating from high school and secondary school, but do not continue their studies, so it is very necessary to solve the problem of employment.

Mr. Hoang has worked directly with the Central College of Transport and Vocational College No. 4 - Ministry of National Defense in Vinh City to recruit and train local youth. However, the most worrying thing is the psychological and thinking barrier, whether these youth want to learn a trade, have a job to escape poverty or not; or will they enroll and then leave?

"The most important thing is to make them go to school by themselves and voluntarily develop the economy. If we use an administrative decision to "force" them, it will not be sustainable," said Mr. Hoang, adding that the Standing Committee of the Ky Son District Party Committee determined that propaganda and consultation to change awareness is the core issue to promote internal strength to effectively carry out sustainable poverty reduction work.

The locality has deployed propaganda work to the villages about career guidance and vocational training. The district leaders have also assigned the Department of Education and Training to assign homeroom teachers to provide vocational counseling to students.

Agreeing with the above solution, Mr. Vuong Quang Minh - Vice Chairman of the Provincial Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee said that, in poverty reduction solutions, the issue that needs to be given top priority is to improve the effectiveness of propaganda work to create a shift in awareness, abandon the mentality of "clinging" to policies among cadres and people, and have the will to rise up and escape poverty when they have the ability to work, when natural and social conditions are not too difficult.

Staff of Chau Thuan Commune Health Station (Quy Chau) instruct people on how to use medicine. Photo: Thanh Duy

Mr. Nguyen Bang Toan - Director of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs said: In Ky Son, there are cases where children are well-off but their household registration is separated so that their parents can go to difficult villages to enjoy the poor household policy. Or like the process of reviewing villages and hamlets that are eligible for Program 135 recently, there were commune and district leaders who approached and discussed so that villages, hamlets and communes could join Program 135.

“Not only the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs but also the entire political system must resolutely assess the current situation of localities. Because up to now, the province has mainly provided orientation, issued mechanisms, policies, instructions, inspections and supervisions, while the implementation is still organized by districts, communes, villages, hamlets and families,” Mr. Toan emphasized.

To some extent, the reason for the “love to be poor” mentality of some local leaders, in our opinion, is also due to the level of scattered and small-scale investment resources that do not really meet the needs… so they have not created a really strong push for that locality. This has created the opposite effect that many villages, even communes “strive” to be poor to take advantage of the policy.

Therefore, there needs to be a more appropriate approach in allocating resources, not spreading them out; at the same time, it is associated with assigning responsibilities and evaluation criteria for each locality to reduce poverty really quickly and, more importantly, sustainably and decisively; the poor, poor villages, poor communes, etc. can be confident on the path of development, not "running out of breath" when there are no more resources to reduce poverty.

(To be continued)

Thanh Duy - Mai Hoa