Poverty down, hunger up, says SWS

WHILE the country’s poverty rate dropped at the end of 2011, the number of Filipinos who experienced hunger went up during the same period, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in its latest survey.

The SWS poll, conducted from Dec. 3 to 7, 2011 found 22.5 percent of respondents (about 4.5 million families) experienced having nothing to eat, which is slightly higher than the 21.5 percent (about 4.1 million families) recorded in September.

The SWS December poll, published in the newspaper BusinessWorld yesterday, used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide.

SWS said severe hunger, experiencing it “often” or “always,” rose by 1.2 points to 4.7 percent or about 955,000 families.

Meanwhile, moderate hunger, having nothing to eat “only once” or “a few times,” dropped by 0.3 point to 17.7 percent (3.57 million families).

“The hunger rate rose since hunger incidence among the poor rose so much that it offset the decline of the poverty rate,” SWS president Mahar Mangahas said in a text message to The STAR.

Hunger among self-rated poor families increased to 33.6 percent in December from 27.9 percent in September, the SWS said.

Among households rating themselves as food-poor, hunger also increase to 38.1 percent from 31.1 percent, it said.

Report from philSTAR.com