Almost half of Armenians live on verge of poverty

By Azernews

By Rashid Shirinov

The poor management of Armenia that the country’s government conducts, of course, leads to the deterioration of living conditions of the Armenian population, and consequently, to their impoverishment.

The latest official statistics say that the poverty rate in Armenia is 29.8 percent. The total number of poor people in Armenia amounts to 900,000, and 310,000 of them are very poor, while 60,000 people are extremely poor.

Aharon Adibekyan, the Director of the Sociometer Sociological Center based in Armenia, has recently commented on the situation regarding poverty in the country.

“About 45 percent of the population of Armenia is on the verge of absolute poverty,” the expert said, adding that 10 percent of these people are in a state of poverty.

The report by Armenia’s National Statistical Service in 2015 noted that after the global economic crisis the level of the poorest in Armenia remained the same or regressed, while the richest have become even richer.

Meanwhile, the poverty, paired with violent corruption and unemployment, also forces Armenians to commit crimes and even suicides.

Of course, poverty also creates obstacles for Armenian children and deprives them of a bright future that the Armenian government constantly promises to the country’s population.

“When we evaluated the program to help students, it turned out that one of the reasons why children do not attend school is that they have no shoes and warm clothes. Thus, poverty affects the formation of future generations,” Adibekyan noted.

Meanwhile, many Armenian children, instead of studying, have to work every day to provide food for their poor families. About 30 percent of working children in Armenia are under 14, statistics say.

Moreover, the unemployment rate in the country is highest among the CIS states, making up 19 percent. Therefore, Armenians periodically hold protests demanding to open new jobs, while others can find no other way but to leave the country.

The poverty problem has deep roots in Armenia and the government is still unable to fix it. Obviously, the country’s economy should be restored first in order to achieve the improvement of the quality of live.