Poverty and Inequality in Thai society

Abstract

This academic article aims to analyze the situation of poverty and inequality in Thai society and propose appropriate public policy guidelines. The results of the analysis showed that: 1) The overall poverty situation in Thailand in the year 2021 of Thailand decreased and when considering the poverty sector, still concentrated in the Southern region, North-East and North and in rural areas rather than urban areas. 2) The situation of inequality was classified into 3 characteristics: inequality in wealth and income, inequality in distribution opportunities and the disparity in power. 3) The guidelines for determining the appropriate public policy are that the public policy makers should be able to access the community to create interaction with the community, assessing community resources and community knowledge based on participatory, promoting equal opportunities in various fields in order to response the actual poverty problem. In addition, the government should set up an agency responsible for collecting, analyzing, classifying data to create poverty indicators and find approaches to reduce the disparities that are appropriate.