At the beginning of August, in a fit of collective pathology, thousands of young people across Britain took to the streets and started breaking into shops, stealing and confronting the police. What triggered this is a mystery. But whatever it was, it wasn't politics, poverty, alienation or despair. That would be making excuses for bad behaviour and imply a humanity to which the rioters had no right. For the riots were not the work of mostly disaffected teenagers but a "feral", "uneducated" "underclass" who somehow managed to outwit the police for the best part of a week using new technology. Venal, entitled and irresponsible, they adhered to values entirely unfamiliar to the British political establishment.

Beyond the growth of gang culture and the demise of individual responsibility, no credible broader explanations were offered for their behaviour. If the problem had been rooted in politics and economics, the solution might have resided there also. But for the government, this was the work of criminals; the only effective remedy was punishment.

Four months later the absurdity of the official response to the riots is painfully clear. It took a while. Given the spontaneous, geographically diverse and inchoate nature of these disturbances, there was never a credible single cause. Even if there had been, there were few among the rioters who would have been in a position to articulate those grievances. The journey from the margins to the mainstream is a perilous one, which few make intact without losing their voice.

The government's narrative may have been ridiculous, but in the absence of a counter-narrative, many believed it plausible. The impression of unclaimed chaos and the shots of burning cars, devastated shopkeepers and hooded youth lent credibility to claims that this was nothing more than young hooligans running amok. "A riot," said Martin Luther King, "is the language of the unheard." Now, thanks in no small part to a study undertaken by the Guardian with the London School of Economics, we've had a chance to listen.

We already knew the government was wrong about the causes. "At the heart of all the violence sits the issue of the street gangs," claimed David Cameron at the time. The government's own research later showed that only 13% of those involved in the riots were gang members, and even then, most were not operating as a gang. Paradoxically, if anything, the riots temporarily tempered gang activity, as rival gangs set aside their differences so they could participate freely in the looting. Poverty was clearly a factor. Ministry of Justice figures revealed almost two-thirds (64%) of the young rioters lived in the poorest areas and 42% relied on free school meals. "There is nothing so dangerous as a man who has nothing to lose," wrote James Baldwin. "You do not need 10 such men. Only one will do." With youth unemployment rising to 21.9%, Britain is producing thousands.

But in the absence of any demands, organisation or even slogans, even those who argued that these riots were political in nature struggled to fathom what the nature of the politics were. Thanks to the research, two particular themes have helped correct some initially flawed impressions. First, the rioters were far more politically conscious than even many on the left, myself included, first thought.

This in no way romanticises their actions. Looting is opportunistic, and most of those involved freely admit to being opportunists. When asked how he heard about the riots, one interviewee said he got a message on his BlackBerry saying people were "getting free stuff out and about", so he joined in. One should not overstate the case: stealing trainers and burning police cars are not the hallmarks of political sophistication. But then nor are riots. They are the crudest tool for those who have few options. By definition, they are chaotic. Rich people don't riot because they have other forms of influence. Riots are a class act.

However, these youngsters were not devoid of political consciousness either. Many, including those who live outside London, knew of the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan, and 75% cited it as an important or very important cause of the riots. They were also considerably more likely than the public at large to say poverty, inequality, government policy and policing were behind the riots.

The second theme to emerge from the report is that the rioters' primary grievance is not the one most of us imagined. The general assumption, among those who believed political causes both existed and mattered, was that the driving force for discontent was economic. Everyone from the UN to Nick Clegg had predicted social unrest if the austerity measures were pushed in time of recession. Indeed, the government's high-handed moral pronouncements were particularly hard to take given the recent behaviour of our political and financial elites: a corrupt political class embroiled in phone hacking and expense scandals, and a disdainful financial sector where failure brought huge bonuses.

Cameron characterised the moral collapse that made the riots possible thus: "It is a complete lack of responsibility in parts of our society; people allowed to feel the world owes them something, that their rights outweigh their responsibilities and their actions do not have consequence." He could just as easily have been talking about bankers.

Economic issues were important. The cause most often cited for the riots was poverty (86%), but unemployment (79%) and inequality (70%) featured prominently too. Few guessed, though, that this tinder in the box was lit at least as much by the long arm of the law as the invisible hand of the market. Almost three-quarters of interviewees said they had been stopped and searched by the police in the last year; 85% said "policing" was an important or very important cause of the riots. Just 7% believed the police do a good job in their area.

But in all the interviews, the apparently mutual contempt between rioters and police comes through. Tales of petty harassment, abuse and humiliation were commonplace. One told the story of a looter who stole a television so he could throw it at the police. "It felt like it was on a leash for years and … we've come off the leash and just responded in that way basically," says one interviewee. "And what was the leash; who was holding you on that leash?" asks the interviewer.

"The police."

In a year that started with the uprisings in Tunisia and is ending with police raids on occupations protesting inequality across the globe, only a naïf would understand these disturbances as a random, isolated moment of mass social deviancy particular to Britain. It would be like claiming that the two black athletes who raised their fists on the podium during the Mexico Olympics in 1968 engaged in individual acts of protest in no way related to the students in Paris, the massacre in My Lai or the passing of the US civil rights act.

The 2011 riots would probably win gold as the year's most destructive, least coherent protest of disaffected youth against indifferent elites, economic hardship and police brutality. Rioters were more likely to give the finger than clench the fist. But what this report makes clear is that they belong to the same category of protest.

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The work and pensions secretary said there were problems with officially classifying child poverty as a family on 60% or less than the median income. It created perverse incentives to lift people just over the mark, he said. Official figures published on Tuesday suggest child poverty is set to swell by 100,000 over the next few years.

The previous Labour government introduced a Child Poverty Act, creating a legally binding requirement for the government to end child poverty by 2020. Official figures suggest 2.8m children are living in poverty.

'Inconceivable'
This week the Institute for Fiscal Studies said it remained "inconceivable" that the government would hit the 2020 target. Mr Duncan Smith made his comments in a speech in central London, arguing that the way child poverty was measured and tackled had proved "hugely expensive" and looked likely to fail.

He said that while benefits would always play a "vital role" for some, such as people with serious disabilities, increased income did not always mean "increased wellbeing". In some cases, families might be pushed further into welfare dependency, meaning their children were more likely to follow suit later in life.

"Income through benefits maintain people on a low income, whereas income gained through work can transform lives," he said. He said measuring poverty through the 60% measure created a "poverty plus a pound" approach - where authorities did just enough to keep some families just above the 60% mark without really changing lives, while those at the very bottom could be left behind.

'Illogical'
Mr Duncan Smith said policies like the pupil premium - designed to help the poorest school children - had "the potential to completely alter a child's future" but did not count towards the measure because the financial impact could not be measured yet.

He suggested new measures of wellbeing - taking into account factors like health, education, life chances and family security - rather than an approach "narrowly focused on income alone". He said: "We need to maintain our vital focus on poverty, while establishing much more effective ways of delivering on it and making a real change to families' life chances."

Official figures published in May showed the number of children living in poverty in the UK fell during Labour's last year in power by 2% to 2.6m. On ITV's This Morning, Prime Minister David Cameron was asked about figures indicating that child poverty was set to increase by 100,000 over the coming years.

He said it was "illogical" that child poverty was recorded relative to average income - because the state pension was going up by an unusually high £5.30 a week, he said, it meant some households with children were less wealthy in relation to pensioners. "I think there is a real problem with the way we measure child poverty," he said. "It is the right thing to do to increase the pension. It doesn't make any child in this country poorer because you are giving pensioners more money at a time when they need it."

'Targets matter'
Later, the prime minister's spokesman said the government had no plans to change its official poverty measures . But he said there was a "debate to be had" about whether "income transfer" or deeper causes of child poverty and social mobility should be examined. However, one campaign group described the government's direction on the issue as "another nail in the coffin of the life chances of a generation of children".

"Relative poverty counts - without these targets the poorest families and children will fall further and further behind," said Rhian Beynon, head of policy and campaigns at Family Action. "Moving the goal posts on income poverty might help the government balance the books but it will send the life chances of children into the red."

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The work and pensions secretary said there were problems with officially classifying child poverty as a family on 60% or less than the median income. It created "perverse incentives" to lift people just over the 60% mark. Official figures published on Tuesday suggest child poverty is set to swell by 100,000 over the next few years. The previous Labour government introduced a Child Poverty Act, creating a legally binding requirement for the government to end child poverty by 2020 - official figures suggest 2.8m children are living in poverty.

'Inconceivable'
This week the Institute for Fiscal Studies said it remained "inconceivable" that the government would hit the 2020 target. Mr Duncan Smith made his comments in a speech in central London - arguing that the way child poverty is measured had proved "hugely expensive" and looked likely to fail.

He said while for some, such as people with serious disabilities, benefits would always play a "vital role" - increased income did not always mean "increased wellbeing". In some cases, families might be pushed further into welfare dependency, meaning their children were more likely to do so later in life.

"Income through benefits maintain people on a low income, whereas income gained through work can transform lives," he said. He said measuring poverty through the 60% measure created a "poverty plus a pound" approach - where authorities did just enough to keep some families just above the 60% without really changing lives, while those at the very bottom could be left behind.

'Illogical'
Meanwhile he said policies like the pupil premium to help the poorest school children, which had "the potential to completely alter a child's future", did not count towards the measure because the financial impact could not be measured yet. He suggested new measures of wellbeing - taking into account factors like health, education, life chances and family security - rather than an approach "narrowly focussed on income alone".

"We need to maintain our vital focus on poverty, while establishing much more effective ways of delivering on it and making a real change to families' life chances."Official figures published in May showed the number of children living in poverty in the UK fell during Labour's last year in power by 2% to 2.6m. On ITV's This Morning, Prime Minister David Cameron was asked about figures indicating that child poverty was set to increase by 100,000 over the coming years.

He said it was "illogical" that child poverty was recorded relative to average income - because the state pension is going up by an unusually high £5.30 a week, it meant some households with children were less wealthy, in relation to pensioners.

"I think there is a real problem with the way we measure child poverty," he said. "It is the right thing to do to increase the pension. It doesn't make any child in this country poorer because you are giving pensioners more money at a time when they need it."

Later, the prime minister's spokesman said the government had no plans to change its official poverty measures but said there was a "debate to be had about whether "income transfer" or deeper causes of child poverty and social mobility should be examined.

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California's population increased by 10 percent between 2000 and 2010 but the number of Californians living in poverty grew more than three times as fast, a new U.S. Census Bureau report reveals.

The data are found in a massive compilation of poverty statistics broken down by state, county and school district. And if the Census Bureau adopts a proposed new method gauging poverty, which takes into account regional and local costs of living and other factors, the state's poverty rate may climb even higher.

In 2000, 4.3 million Californians were living in poverty but by 2010, the number had increased to 5.8 million, a 34.3 percent jump that reflected the serious recession that has gripped the state in recent years. The state's overall rate climbed from 12.7 percent in 2000 to 15.8 percent in 2010.

Virtually every region of the state was affected, from the most affluent counties in the San Francisco Bay Area to the poorest in interior agricultural areas. San Mateo County had the state's lowest poverty rate in 2000 at 5.1 percent and was still lowest in 2010, but had seen a rise to 7 percent. Imperial County, in the state's southeastern corner, had the highest poverty rate in 2000 at 24.7 percent, nearly twice the state rate, but by 2010 had ceded that dubious title to Fresno's 26.8 percent.

Even more dramatic contrasts in poverty rates are evident in the state's school districts, a separate Census Bureau compilation reveals. The bureau reported numbers of school children in poverty-stricken families for each school district, but did not calculate poverty rates. They can be extrapolated, however, from the data.

In Los Angeles Unified, by far the state's largest school district, for instance, 211,407 of the district's 773,749 school-age children are in poverty-stricken families for a 27.3 percent rate. At the other end of the size scale, Maple Creek Elementary in Humboldt County has just six kids and lists one in poverty.

Not surprisingly, given the county rankings, one of the state's highest rates of school district poverty is found in Fresno Unified at 44 percent. But in Clovis Unified, on Fresno's affluent northeastern flank, it's scarcely a third as much, 15.5 percent. The very lowest rates of school district poverty are found in the state's most affluent communities, such as San Mateo County's Hillsborough Unified at just 3.9 percent. Beverly Hills Unified, however, has a 14.1 percent poverty rate, nearly as high as the state as a whole.

One of the more interesting contrasts is found in two small school districts which are next door to one another in the Census Bureau's alphabetical listing, but about 160 miles apart on the map, Marin County's Reed Union and Tehama County's Reed's Creek. The former has a poverty rate of 6.4 percent while the latter's is 43.3 percent.

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China decided Tuesday to almost double its standard for defining the poverty line of the nation's farmers to benefit at least 100 million people as it aims to build itself into an overall well-off society in the coming decade.

The nation's top leaders decided to raise the threshold to 2,300 yuan ($362) in terms of the annual net income of farmers, up 92 percent from that of 2009. A government white paper on poverty reduction released earlier this month showed the country had reduced its poverty-stricken population in rural regions to 26.88 million at the end of 2010 from 94.22 million a decade ago. The new poverty line will make at least 100 million people eligible for government anti-poverty subsidies, according to experts.

Speaking at a national poverty-alleviation meeting held Tuesday at the Great Hall of the People, President Hu Jintao said that poverty-reduction is a significant task. After more than 30 years reform and opening-up, Hu said that China's poverty alleviation task no longer concerns just solving food and clothing issues for the poor. Rather, it is about speeding up poverty reduction, improving the ecological environment, strengthening developmental capabilities, and narrowing wealth gaps.

Hu called on all members of the Communist Party of China and the whole society to concretely carry out poverty-alleviation work with greater resolve, intensified efforts, and more effective actions and measures in order to achieve the target of building a comprehensively well-off society by 2020. "Eradicating poverty, improving people's livelihoods, and prosperity for all is the fundamental requirement of socialism," Hu said.

Hu said that China has made extraordinary achievements in poverty alleviation since its launch of the reform and opening-up policy more than 30 years ago. The success has contributed to greater economic development, political stability, national unity and social harmony in the country. "By 2020, our general target is to ensure the nation's impoverished will no longer need to worry about food and clothing. Their access to compulsory education, basic medical care, and housing will also be ensured," Hu said.

"The annual net income growth of farmers in poverty-stricken regions will be higher than the national average by 2020. Public services for them will also near the national level. The current trend of widening rich-poor gap will be reversed," Hu said.

"The central government decides to raise the poverty line for farmers to 2,300 yuan, which is up 92 percent compared to the standard set in 2009," Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced at the meeting.
"It is an important measure to enhance poverty alleviation by substantially raising the poverty line so that more low-income people can be included in the country's poverty reduction programs," Wen said.
"Local governments in more economically developed regions can set even higher poverty lines," he added.

He said China had increased its spending on poverty reduction from 12.75 billion yuan in 2001 to 34.93 billion yuan in 2010, representing an average annual growth rate of 11.9 percent. Spending during the 2001-2010 period totaled 204.38 billion yuan.

Wen said that the nation's social security funding will prioritize rural regions, especially poverty-stricken areas, in future. He said the government will aim to cover the entire rural regions with a new type of social endowment insurance for rural residents next year.

In a new initiative to reduce poverty and boost balanced development, a trans-provincial pilot scheme for poverty relief was also launched in central and western regions of China this month. Wen urged the progressing of the pilot before it expands to 10 other impoverished trans-provincial regions mainly in mountain areas in central and western parts of the country.

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Eradication of poverty poses two challenges. First, the ongoing programmes need to be continually monitored and evaluated to make them more effective and synergic and also to extend their reach. The second, and a more formidable challenge, is to bring into the mainstream those who have been left out of the processes of growth and development.

Poverty can be alleviated by well-conceived programmes. But removing ‘exclusion' — a factor that severely impairs any development effort by creating an island of discontent — requires societal reforms that are far more difficult to implement. Given the increasing attention the objective of ‘inclusive growth' has been getting in recent times, India's policy perspective related to poverty alleviation must go beyond the ‘poverty line' and extend to structures and processes underlying ‘exclusion'.

The two books under review provide a wealth of ground level data on the excluded groups and they are presented under the conventional groupings — the Scheduled Castes; the Scheduled Tribes; and women. For obvious reasons, there is some overlapping between the two, and this review is based chiefly on the first book, Poverty and Social Exclusion in India.

To highlight some of the distinctive features of the broad picture that emerges, the forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes suffer exclusion, both in the geographical and physical senses. They are victims of the ‘out-of-sight-out-of-mind' syndrome afflicting policymakers. “Excess mortality among tribal children continues to be the starkest marker of tribal disadvantage…The low participation in decision-making and their elimination from land and forests are central to the continued exclusion of tribals from progress and development.”

As for the Scheduled Castes, they are treated by other communities as unclean and as groups that should be kept at a distance and away from economic and social activities. They are not isolated from the mainstream, as the STs are, and have the advantage of being familiar with the mainstream community and its activities and institutions. The book, Poverty and Social Exclusion, notes: “There has been some convergence in education outcomes, particularly in post-primary education between Dalit and non-SC/ST men… the advance has been impressive, [but] the Dalits still lag behind because of their low starting points.” The Dalits face discrimination in labour market and find it hard to move from casual labour to non-farm occupations.

An interesting observation about women is that the gender bias operates in the mainstream as well as the excluded categories. “Female disadvantage in India persists despite high rates of economic growth. Women are dying unnecessarily both in infancy and motherhood; the outcomes are poorer among the Dalits and Adivasis.”

The studies find that “traditional hierarchies have remained stubborn against growth.” While the Indian Constitution has set the stage for “unparalleled affirmative action and other forms of positive actions,” the result has been patchy affecting some groups more than others and with none securely accommodated in the mainstream. The lesson for the future is that “inclusion is not just about changing outcomes, but crucially about changing processes that produce and reproduce exclusionary outcomes.”

Going by some of the more recent developments and trends, it seems the next couple of decades may bring major changes in the attitude and condition of excluded groups. For example, the agitations by farmers and tribals have compelled the government to amend the laws related to land acquisition and alienation so as to protect their interests better. Women are slowly but steadily getting into Panchayats and may soon get a statutory share of seats in Parliament and the State Legislatures. The minorities could well add thrust to the movement for ‘inclusion.

Public response to Anna Hazare's movement is a clear indication that Indian society is getting impatient with undelivered promises on equitable growth and development. While it is obvious that more effective implementation of conventional anti-poverty programmes is essential for tackling the problem of exclusion, it would not suffice. The obstacles to inclusion will have to be removed.

The policymakers would do well to bear in mind two things. One, the urban environment softens the tyranny of caste hierarchy that prevails in rural communities. And two, increasing non-farm employment in urban as well as rural areas will enable the marginalised sections in agriculture to move out.

The other book under review, Perspectives of poverty in India, with its focus on these two points, discusses in detail their implications for development strategy and policy framework.

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NEARLY 5,000 children in York are living in poverty according to new figures – and the number is set to rise. City leaders are now drawing up a new action plan to help those in the “hotspots”. City of York Council figures show about one in eight of the city’s children – 4,705 or 13 per cent – are in poverty, and although the city as a whole is better off than the national average of 21 per cent, Clifton, Westfield and Hull Road are all worse off.

The council is now working with YorkOk and York Without Walls to launch the City of York Child Poverty Strategy 2011- 2020, aimed at tackling the problem over the next decade. The draft strategy includes sections on education, health, family support, parental employment, skills and housing, and a final strategy will be launched later this year.

Coun Ruth Potter, who until last week was the council’s cabinet member for education, children and young people’s services, said: “People see York as an affordable city but there have always been areas that have been less affluent.”

She said York had lots of relatively low-paid jobs in the shopping and tourist sectors, and also said it was becoming more difficult for families to get benefits. She said: “We have to work very hard because we are working against the tide - there are things happening at a national level that we have no control over. We need to make sure we do not disadvantage the same people.”

The council said single-parent families in York were especially susceptible to child poverty, with 82 per cent of one-parent families in Micklegate, 81 per cent in Westfield and 80 per cent in Haxby being classed as in poverty.

In the report, relative poverty is defined as those in households with an income below 60 per cent of the average, after housing costs have been paid. In 2009/10, the poverty line was a weekly household income of £256 for a single parent with two children, or £348 for a couple with two children, according to the Child Poverty Action Group.

The council’s statistics show that unemployment had “increased significantly” in York, with workless households rising from 6.8 per cent in 2008 to ten per cent in 2009. There were 130 homeless households in the city in 2009-10, which included an estimated 85 children.

Nick Woodall, of the Centre For Separated Families in York, said while child poverty could be higher in separated families, poverty could also lead to family breakdown in the first place. He said: “The economic profile of York has changed – used to be a fairly industrial town.

“The loss of those kind of traditional jobs may have reduced the potential for people to take up the kind of work that may have lifted them out of poverty in the past. “In a fairly high-cost place like York, the daily financial struggles of families are likely to be exacerbated.”The report said that child poverty in York was expected to rise by 2013 due changes to family tax credits and housing benefits.

York’s “poverty hotspots” were listed as Clifton, which has 27 per cent of children (585) in poverty; Westfield (25 per cent or 795 children); Hull Road (25 per cent, or 395 children); Heworth (21 per cent or 510 children); and Acomb (270 children).

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HERMEL, Lebanon: With the beginning of winter, residents of villages and towns in northern Bekaa, many of whom are unable to afford fuel, are turning to wood from the area’s forests. While burning firewood is the only option for many to stay warm, the practice is driving deforestation and striking a blow to local conservation efforts.

With over 35 percent of the region’s families living below the poverty line, many residents don’t have the financial resources to buy fuel, especially as each family needs an average of 10 barrels, or 200 liters, of heating oil during the winter season, at a cost of around LL1 million a month, double the minimum wage.

As a result, residents are chopping down trees in the forests around the city of Hermel and the area’s villages, which already register the highest percentage of desertification in Lebanon.

Ali Hajj Hussein, a firewood dealer, said that selling firewood has become his permanent profession in the last three years as the majority of the area’s residents, regardless of their economic status, have begun using firewood for heating. He blamed the switch on the significant rise in the cost of fossil fuels, especially diesel.

According to Hajj Hussein, “the poorest of the poor” secure their need by gathering fallen branches in orchards and fields and at the edges of the area’s forests or by buying them from the owners of the fields for LL150,000 to LL200,000 a ton.

Some residents also use motor oil residue, which burns for longer periods than diesel, despite the danger it poses to their health. Others use olive pits by squeezing them into the form of small pieces of wood and drying them. The demand for this kind of fuel has increased as it is easy to use and burns for a long time. It is sold for LL250,000 and LL350,000 a ton and is available in large quantities due to vast olive orchards in the area.

More affluent residents are able to afford quality firewood, such as oak or fir, which is cut into pieces ranging between 20 and 25 centimeters in length for a regular heater and 50 centimeters for a fireplace and sold for LL450,000 a ton, according to Hajj Hussein.

But such activity is threatening the cedar, fir and cypress forests in the mountains of Hermel, Akkar and Dinnieh and, according to environmental activists, several ecotourism projects are now also under threat due to wanton cutting.

Salem Hmeidan, an environmental activist with a local youth organization, said that economic deprivation was driving deforestation in the area.

According to Hmeidan, poor conditions in the agriculture sector, which constitutes the main source of income for Hermel’s residents, as well as the government’s decision to destroy all illegal marijuana plantations in the region’s mountains without providing a substitute alternative crop, is prompting residents to chop down trees and sell their wood for heating or transform it into charcoal.

In addition to logging, Hmeidan said that mining activities in the mountains are also a threat to the forests.

Hussein Allaw, the owner of ecotourism resort Al-Jord and an environmental activist, emphasized the need to establish a comprehensive development plan to allow residents, especially farmers, to secure basic necessities.

He called on local authorities to provide residents of valleys and mountains with fuel they can use for heating instead of firewood and emphasized the municipality’s crucial role in preserving the region’s forests.

Allaw suggested that the municipality oblige anyone with a building license to plant a group of trees in the mountains, in an effort to reforest the area.

For his part, Mofleh Allaw, a municipal council member in Hermel and the head of the municipality’s environmental committee, argued that deforestation in the area has reached a very dangerous level due to lack of initiative from the government – but it’s an issue that dates back to the country’s independence.

He suggested reforestation take place in the plains and mountains of the Hermel region, as it would only involve planting tree seedlings which could grow on their own with the help of the area’s soil and high rainfall levels.

He also called for transforming the region into a large natural reserve with wide-open spaces for ecotourism activities to provide a source of income for residents and for increasing cooperation between the municipality and organizations that care for the environment.

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It has been more than 20 years since the House of Commons unanimously resolved to end child poverty by 2000, but a national advocacy group says it's shocked by how little progress has been made.

While the economy has more than doubled in size since that 1989 resolution, the incomes of Canada's poorest families have stagnated, Campaign 2000 says in its 20th annual report card on child and family poverty released Wednesday.

"Every year I am shocked by the lack of progress made in poverty eradication," said Laurel Rothman, national co-ordinator of Campaign 2000. "The gap between rich and poor families has continued to widen, and low-income and average-income families are left struggling to keep up."

The group says 639,000 children still live in poverty in Canada — one in every 10 children. Among aboriginal children, the rate is one in four. Above-average poverty rates are also seen among children of immigrants and among children with a disability, as a parent frequently has to stay home to look after the child.

More than 323,000 children also belong to families that rely on food banks, the report says. That's not to say there has been no progress in the fight against poverty. The rate of child and family poverty was 9.5 per cent in 2009, down from 11.9 per cent in 1989. But Campaign 2000 calls that 20-year change "strikingly small" given the growth in the Canadian economy since then.

Nationally, the group is calling for a federal minimum wage of $11 an hour. Currently, there is no federal minimum wage — provincial minimum wages range from $9 to $10.25 hourly. Only in Nunavut is the minimum wage $11.

But it says a higher minimum wage by itself will not close the gap. It also recommends that the child benefit for low-income families be boosted to $5,400 per child (the current maximum is $3,485).

'Cautious optimism'
Campaign 2000 refers to what it calls "cautious optimism" in describing some provincial efforts to tackle child and family poverty. Quebec, for instance, has adopted poverty reduction strategies that have seen the province's poverty rate plunge from 16.1 per cent in 2000 to 7.7 per cent in 2009. In Newfoundland and Labrador, the poverty rate dove from 17.9 per cent to 9.3 per cent over the same period.

Newfoundland is the only province that provides enough social assistance for a single parent with one child to live above the poverty line. In every other province, welfare rates keep a single parent with one child living in poverty — sometimes just below the poverty line, but sometimes as much as $5,000 below the low-income cut-off mark.

Even having a full-time job is no guarantee of escaping poverty. Figures show that one in three low-income children lives in a family where at least one parent works full-time year-round. One in four workers in Canada was in a low-wage job in 2010 — one that pays less than $13.32 an hour.

"We need better jobs but we also do need better and more flexbile public policies that help people when they're not able to be in the labour force," Rothman said. The group calls for more government attention to child care, noting that fewer than one in five children has access to a regulated child-care space.

Most European countries have some form of universal public child-care, Rothman said, which has helped to keep poverty rates below five per cent in some cases. The group also wants to see a national housing strategy to address the 750,000 children under the age of 15 who live in housing that, in its words, is either "unaffordable, substandard, overcrowded or all three."

The Campaign 2000 report also noted that the federal Conservatives' decision last year to make the long-form census voluntary will make the group's job more difficult.

"Census data is the only reliable source of information on poverty rates with demographic breakdowns," it says. "Until the long-form census or a similarly reliable data source is introduced, we will not be able to track child poverty rates among selected social groups for 2010 or after."

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British Columbia has had the dubious distinction of having the worst child poverty rate in the country for eight years in a row and has exceeded the national average for 11 years — through boom-and-bust economic cycles. The most recent statistics put B.C.’s rate at 12 per cent (2009 after-tax measure, while the national rate was 9.5 per cent.) That’s 100,000 B.C. children.

During the same decade, income inequality in B.C. has increased significantly. In 2009, the bottom half of B.C. families with children received less than one-quarter of the total income pie. Meanwhile, the richest 10 per cent of families walked away with more than 27 per cent of the pie. In fact, over the last 20 years, the average annual income of that top 10 per cent group increased by $89,000. But the average annual income of the entire bottom 50 per cent of families went up only $539, and some groups in this half actually saw their income drop by thousands of dollars.

Whether you are in the top or the bottom half of the income pie, you would do well to pay attention to these statistics. Together, high child poverty rates and growing inequality are unsustainable and unjust.

They are unsustainable because poverty threatens children’s health and development and increases social costs, and because the widening rich-poor gap is undermining our social fabric and productivity. Poverty and inequality are already costing us a lot through the social ills they create — everything from higher rates of violence and incarceration to increased incidence of mental illness and addictions. We are already paying for higher, and totally preventable, rates of chronic illness directly linked to these trends.

They are unjust because poverty disproportionately affects children in female-led lone parent families, children of immigrants and aboriginals, children in ethnic families and those with a disability. These groups’ over-representation in poverty statistics is evidence of systemic problems in the labour market and in our taxation and social policy regimes.

They are also unjust because families at the lower end of the income scale are working harder than ever, more hours and often multiple jobs, but they are still living in poverty. Forty-eight per cent of B.C.’s poor children have one or more parents working full time year-round.
 
These destructive trends are largely preventable, yet we have failed to act. Recognizing the seriousness of the negative consequences of poverty and the strong public support for taking action, seven provinces and three territories have, or are developing, comprehensive poverty-reduction strategies. With Alberta’s new premier promising to do the same, B.C. is close to being the last province to step up to the plate. The federal Conservative government has also failed to act on the unanimous 2009 House of Commons resolution to “develop an immediate plan to end poverty for all in Canada.”

Thousands of children would be lifted out of poverty if the Canadian Child Tax Benefit was increased and indexed against inflation. An increase in welfare rates to make them match actual food and shelter costs would reduce the depth of poverty for some of the poorest among us. Affordable quality child care, lower post-secondary tuition fees and an increased supply of affordable housing options are just some of the public investments we should be making to build stronger and healthier families and communities.

In the annual BC Campaign 2000 Child Poverty Report Card, published today, the First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition calls for a number of public policy initiatives. Chief among them is the adoption of a poverty reduction plan for B.C. with targets and timelines we can hold government and ourselves accountable to.

Twenty years ago when we signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, we promised to make things better for all children. It’s time to deliver.

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