Official reports improved Roma poverty indicators

Budapest, May 31 (MTI) – Poverty risk indicators for the Roma population have significantly declined in the past 2-3 years, an official at the human resources ministry said.

The proportion of Roma experiencing income poverty fell from 68 to 63 percent while in-work poverty rate fell from 43 to 27 percent and the deprivation rate from 78 to 68 percent, state secretary Károly Czibere told a meeting of the Roma Coordination Council on Tuesday. He said the latter indicator showed bigger improvement among the Roma than the non-Roma population.

He said the results are proof that the government’s catchup policies and spending on developments have helped improvements. Helpful measures included making attendance at nursery school compulsory and infant day-care meals free of charge for a wider range of people, while also improving early infant education centres and access to one free meal a day in schools. Czibere also noted the fostered work schemes which enrolled 60,000-66,000 Roma, as well as talent-nurturing programmes in schools.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters