Thailand’s Urban Poverty: An Overview and The Duang Prateep Foundation

By Seow Choon Hui
Photos by Esther Chung, Amanda Sangeetha Thomas and Bonnie Teh

When it comes to the issue on poverty, many will tend to associate the term with rural underdevelopment and resource scarcity, often in a conventional sense. Nevertheless, in recent years an extensive body of literature has emerged to provide a more concise and well rounded definition, measurement and analysis of poverty. To begin, urban poverty, especially in cities like Bangkok is a multidimensional phenomenon. The urban poor live with many deprivations. Their daily challenges may include:

• limited access to fair employment opportunities and income,
• no legal right of abode, fear of evictions
• inadequate and insecure housing and services
• violent and unhealthy environments
• little or not social protection mechanisms
• limited access to adequate health services and education opportunities.

Despite the fact that Thailand’s economy has improved over the years since the 1997 Financial Crisis, the issue of urban poverty is still rather apparent until today. The financial crisis has had some impact on unemployment and underemployment starting in December 2008, though overall unemployment is still very low. As the economic crisis began, unemployment rates in Thailand increased. In December 2008, the number of unemployed individuals rose by 65 percent year-on-year, resulting in an unemployment rate of 1.4 percent in December and 2.4 percent in January. A survey conducted by the Ministry of Education showed that the crisis also hit new graduates from public and private universities. The share of unemployed new graduates almost doubled from 17.7 percent in 2007 to 30 percent in 2008, which is evidence that labor supply and demand are moving further apart. However, the unemployment rate only tells one part of the story. The number of underemployed workers in fact increased by roughly three percent (180,000) between September 2008 and March 2009. This comes to show that despite the occurrence of globalization that has benefited many parties, there is still an apparent social and economy division in the country. It is when the rich becomes even richer and the poor as well as those who can’t catch up with the rapid societal and economical changes will be left behind.

Internal migration within Thailand has always been happening but at a particular point tracing back to almost 40 years ago, rural area villagers and the working class started to flock to the city of Bangkok in search of a better life and a job that pays relatively more. This is when the problem of urban poverty began to flourish as the ratio of employment opportunities to the population was rather high and following the swift pace of the shifting socioeconomic forces, these individuals then became part of the statistics that delineates urban poverty. One of the two major slums in Bangkok, minutely tucked within the busy district of Klong Thuey, is an example that illustrates the actual circumstances of what urban poverty is like. 

A part of Klong Toey slum

Communities living in unruly condition.

The Klong Toey Slum is one of the oldest and largest slums in Bangkok, having been around for about 50 years. The slum communities are made up of a majority of rural migrants from Northeast Thailand who came to Bangkok in search of job opportunities. They constantly face threats of eviction from the authorities in Thailand because they have no legal right to the land that they occupy. Poverty and health problems are just some of the difficulties faced by the community of the slums.

Sanitation and living conditions not at the most desirable level

Today, the Duang Prateep Foundation (DPF) seeks to help these urban poor, providing education for the slum’s children and organizing various projects to help empower the people and communities. Starting with just a house and a group of slum children, the Prateep sisters’ humble beginnings had grown from just five people working in a small office to having over 100 staff and twenty full-time volunteers, with many part-time helpers. In 1992 the Foundation moved into a new permanent building, Thailand's first comprehensive and resource center for a slum community.

Since education is the main effort of the DPF, the people are exposed to skills and knowledge which can aid them in a long-term period, enabling them to be independent in the future and cultivate a sense of confidence. In the process, the foundation instills a sense of community participation and ensures that communities like these are able to advance forward by helping not just oneself but one another. Pioneering projects by the DPF would encompass:

• Duang Prateep Kindergarten
• Community kindergartens
• Educational sponsorship
• Special education for the hearing-impaired
• Nithan Caravan puppet troupe
• Youth groups
• Tsunami relief program
• Senior Citizen's care
• HIV/Aids awareness program

Perhaps the matters on urban poverty might not be eradicated all at once and poverty in certain parts of the city will still remain, but the DPF has initiated a very valuable effort to the slum community. Alongside the main agenda of the Thai government, DPF as a whole does not only look after the well-being and state of the community but also changes the general public’s current mindset that the poor is the source of society’s ills. There is definitely a much larger picture to that but with DPF’s initiatives, it is believed that the income gaps in Thailand will be gradually bridged and the alleviation of poverty shall be increased in near future. 

Seow Choon Hui, 22, is a Bachelor's degree holder double majoring in psychology and communications. With the semester coming to an end, he is currently stuck between limbo of his last term and the taunting realm of being a fresh graduate.