Lynette ChenPhoto Essay
Back in the 1960s, poverty in Singapore meant not having access to clean water and sanitation. Today, the definition is a lot more ambiguous, especially with the government’s non-commitment to an official poverty line.
Even so, it’s obvious what’s considered poverty here would differ immensely from less developed countries. In India, the impoverished survive on a scant USD 0.60 (SGD 0.79) daily. Contrast with Singapore, 80% of households in the poorest one-fifth own their houses, a prized asset.
So does poverty actually exist in Singapore?
The photo essay examines needy families in Singapore who receive assistance from local charity Children’s Wishing Well, which fulfils wishes of children from low-income families within the lowest 20th percentile.
As the sole breadwinner, Mohammad Arfan, 44, supports his family of 6 on a monthly income of $2,500. According to him, this amount is “just nice”. Between supporting an ill mother-in-law, 3 schooling children, and his own elderly parents, the security supervisor is happy to get by each month with a small amount set aside for emergencies.
Regular check-ups and medication for his mother-in-law staying with him who suffers from cancer and diabetes accounts for some of that financial burden. But Arfan wouldn’t define himself poor. He refers poverty to “when one’s expenses constantly exceeding one’s salary”.
At home, the family quietly watches television, and in this case, cable TV. Going out on a family outing can be a luxury for them. “Poverty happens because of the high cost of living,” explained Arfan. “Even though your pay looks good on paper, the balance is barely enough for transport, meals and emergency savings after you pay the bills.”
Similarly, the Quek family of 5 survives on the single income of Quek Cheow Siang, 52, who earns about $1,000 monthly as a taxi driver. “We basically have no income because all the money that comes in goes straight to the bills,” laments his wife, Tan Bee Pheng, 49, a homemaker.
Previously, Cheow Siang was working as a contractor and the family lived comfortably. But since COE prices sky rocketed, Cheow Siang was forced to sell off his lorry, thus ending his career. Nonetheless, his experience has helped cut some costs with many installations around the house such as the curtain bars done by Cheow Siang himself.
Recently, the Quek family has been slapped with a series of fines for untimely bill payments, including 1 from local telco SingTel for broadband services. Adding to their financial troubles is an unsuccessful application for financial assistance from the Minstry of Social and Family Development.
Just a few blocks away from the Quek family lives Ashraf Bin Ismail, 12, and his family of 6 who gets by on his father, Ismail Bin Ibrahim’s monthly income of $1,600. However, little Ashraf is content with his life. “There’s a Malay idiom that says, ‘Let us be poor now and be rich after’,” expressed the youngest member of the family.
His father, Ismail, 49, who works part-time at a fast-food chain in addition to his day job as a horse handler, simply defines poverty as not having enough work. However, even with 2 jobs, he finds there’s barely any money left after paying the bills. He said, “Now, poor families all have televisions, computers, phones and fridges, but not money. Every month is a challenge.”
Like every other country, income inequality does exist in Singapore. While we have the highest number of billionaires per capita in the world, we also have low-income families in the bottom tier who are in need of financial help.
But some of these families don’t consider themselves poor although their definitions of poverty differed greatly. Poverty, it seems, is relative.