In All Regions In Maluku, The Bad News Is Extreme Poverty Spread

JAKARTA - The level of population poverty that is considered extreme exists in all regencies and cities in Maluku Province, however, the government has designated five districts in the 2021 fiscal year as pilot projects in its handling efforts.

"Actually, this is just a term from the government about the problem of extreme poverty", said the chairman of Commission IV of the Maluku DPRD (Regional House of Representatives), Samson Atapary, in Ambon, Monday, January 17, as reported by Antara.

According to him, there are various indicators of extreme poverty such as sanitation, uninhabitable housing, infrastructure, education, limited access to clean water, and monthly income below Rp. 400,000, to the problem of malnutrition.

For the five regions in Maluku, it is actually the first stage that has been determined to be handled.

However, this does not mean that these five regions, including the Eastern Seram District, Central Maluku, Southwest Maluku, Southeast Maluku, and the Tanimbar Islands Regency have more extreme poverty levels than the other six regencies/cities.

"Because in almost 11 regencies/cities there are people whose poverty levels are categorized in extreme conditions and need fast handling from the government", said Samson.

However, until December 2021, the handling of five districts was prioritized as a pilot project, but it will continue to grow until it reaches all regions.

Regarding assistance from the government in the form of the Family Hope Program for the 2022 fiscal year, he explained, this assistance was based on single data and input data whose authority was in districts and cities.

For example, this year a person is declared out of the pre-prosperity, it should be a district/city that proposes because all data is integrated with the Ministry of Social Affairs and is used by the Ministry of Social Affairs to determine who is entitled to receive BLT, PKH, and so on.

Then the Minister of Home Affairs has also written to regional heads, including in Maluku, to update data from time to time regarding data on the poor.

"We in Commission IV together with the provincial Social Affairs Office have discussed this issue and we have also asked for attention through the agency regarding circulars from the governor to second-level regional heads to pay attention to poverty data", said Samson.