Ministry Of Social Affairs Proposes IDR 370 Billion For Disaster Victim Protection In 2024

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos) has proposed a budget of IDR 370 billion for the protection sector for victims of natural disasters in 2024.

Acting Director of Social Protection for Natural Disaster Victims, Directorate General of Social Protection and Security of the Ministry of Social Affairs Adrianus Alla said that the figure currently needs approval from the Ministry of Finance and Bappenas.

"This will be reviewed next week regarding our proposal, whether our proposal is fulfilled or not," said Adrianus as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, September 7.

Adrianus also said the figure had been submitted from the beginning of 2023. The reason is, the budget for the protection of victims of natural disasters has decreased from previous years.

To note, the protection budget for victims of natural disasters in 2023 is approved at IDR 270 billion. This contradicts the sector's budget in 2021 with a figure of IDR 400 billion.

"Based on our experience in previous years, the ideal budget is approximately Rp. 400 billion, because in our task the Ministry of Social Affairs is not only during disaster management, but mitigation and disaster preparedness," said Adrianus.

However, according to him, the budget for the protection of victims of natural disasters that are not fulfilled is not used as an obstacle to duty.

Previously, the Minister of Social Affairs (Mensos) Tri Rismaharini wanted the budget for the protection of disaster victims to be increased, such as in the 2021 budget year amounting to Rp400 billion.

This is because the disaster victims protection budget in 2023 is considered insufficient at the amount of Rp. 200 billion.

For this effort, Social Minister Risma has submitted an application from November 2022. This is because the Ministry of Social Affairs' budget cut is almost 50 percent for disaster victims protection posts.

However, the Minister of Social Affairs Risma is worried that in the future the disaster will still take place, with a limited budget for disaster victims. This is why the Ministry of Social Affairs can only go down for a number of disasters.