Cassam Uteem: "Decriminalizing Cannabis is an Option to Consider Seriously"

In this interview, former President Cassam Uteem discusses poverty, social justice, and electoral reform, urging for an open debate on the decriminalization of cannabis, which he sees as necessary in light of the devastation caused by synthetic drugs in Mauritius.

Currently, the poverty line in Mauritius is set at $8.30 per day per person, affecting around 105,900 Mauritians. Last week, Minister Ashok Subron acknowledged the need for a change in the model, integrating criteria beyond income. Do you believe raising this threshold would provide a better measure of poverty in the country?

According to some international financial organizations, the poverty threshold measurement is based on calculating the median living standard of a population and setting it at 60% of that amount.

In Mauritius, the most reliable indicator we have to systematically measure poverty and its evolution is, in my opinion, the national minimum wage, which guarantees a minimal standard of living. Today, the guaranteed minimum income, including state allowances, is Rs 20,000 per month. Hence, the poverty threshold should be Rs 12,000 per month.

Raising the poverty threshold would give a more accurate picture of monetary poverty in our country and enable us to act more effectively.

But do you think the state is ready to bear the budgetary and social implications of such a revision? The fight against poverty should be the priority of any government that cares about the well-being of its people. It is their duty to do everything possible, including providing the means to eliminate it in the short to medium term. Like Joseph Wresinski, the founding father of ATD Fourth World, I would even say it is their "sacred duty."

You have denounced "institutional abuse" against the most vulnerable. How can we translate this demand for dignity into public policies, beyond mere financial transfers? I denounced, during my speech at the commemoration of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, the institutional abuse that occurs in public service spaces and in the relationships between disadvantaged individuals and public services.

I cited the example of those who, living in precarious conditions, must take refuge in centers during a cyclone or flooding. To qualify for a subsistence allowance, women, children, and sometimes babies are treated like beggars and humiliated. They must wait an entire day at a police station to obtain a voucher that certifies their status as "refugees," which they must then present to an official, often indifferent or unsympathetic, at the Ministry of Social Security to receive what is essentially their due.

This institutional abuse experienced by the most vulnerable families is a stain on our society that the state must urgently address.