On the surface, Indre exudes the tranquility of a rural department, far from urban fury. But behind the hills and groves, a brutal reality imposes itself: one in ten inhabitants lives below the poverty line. In a Centre-Val de Loire region among the least poor in France, this bastion of Berry is a poor performer with a poverty rate of 15.4% – slightly higher than the national average (14.9%) -, i.e. 31,684 people living below the poverty line.
“We are limiting the increase in poverty, but we cannot stem it”
In Châteauroux, the prefecture, almost a quarter of the inhabitants (23%) live below the poverty line. With incomes below €883/month for the 10% of the poorest, precariousness is taking root in working-class neighborhoods like Saint-Jean and Saint-Jacques, classified as a priority district of the city (QPV). Here, the numbers reach new heights: more than 54% of residents are affected by poverty.
“Poverty is concentrated where rents are lowest. Those who find work and leave the neighborhood are replaced by even more fragile households, creating a spiral that is difficult to break.analyzes Laurent Tixier, delegate of the prefect for city policy.
A marked campaign
But this discomfort is not the prerogative of cities. In the countryside, it takes another, quieter form. In La Châtre, a town of 4,000 inhabitants, one in five people is affected. Patrick Judalet, the mayor, testifies: “Here, poverty mainly affects isolated elderly people, tenants, often with small pensions. We work hand in hand with associations to offer them food aid or basic equipment. » With its 734 social housing units for 2,700 households, the city is trying to respond.
The figures from the Observatory of Inequalities speak for themselves: in municipalities like Issoudun or Le Blanc, around 18% of the population lives below the poverty line. On an intercommunal scale, territories like Marche Berrichonne reach similar rates (20%), reinforcing the idea of a diffuse and more rooted fragility in the south of the department.
However, the size of municipalities sometimes distorts perception. In Issoudun, 18% of poverty affects 1,840 people; in Châtillon-sur-Indre, this same rate represents “only” 351 inhabitants. These disparities complicate public action, often calibrated to respond to critical masses and not to a multitude of micro-situations.
Limited solutions
Faced with this widespread poverty, public policies are struggling to contain social erosion. In QPVs, average income remains stagnant. “The difficulty is that public policies limit the increase in poverty, but we cannot stem it”admits Laurent Tixier. Schemes such as the city contract, focused on employment, mobility or education, are struggling to reverse the trend.
In a department where half of the people in this situation live on less than 940 euros per month, the future remains uncertain. As the Observatory of Inequalities report points out, poverty maps above all make it possible to target priorities. In Indre, they are clear: to offer opportunities where inequalities are entrenched, and to restore hope in a territory which, beneath its rural veneer, bears the stigma of silent but very real poverty.
What is the poverty line? The threshold at which a person is considered poor depends on the resources available after tax for an adult person (the standard of living) available to half the population. It is customary to set the poverty line at 60% of this median standard of living. In 2022, this corresponds to €1,216 per month for a single person.
