BPS Considered A Legitization Tool For The Success Of The State To Reduce Poverty Rates

JAKARTA Lecturer of Social Welfare Science UI, Rissalwan Handy Lubis considers it natural for the public to question the poverty rate released by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS). The reason is, this data often does not represent reality in the field.

He gave an example, the poverty level parameter that refers to household spending for the monthly cost of living is around Rp. 600,000.

In fact, the cost of living in villages and cities almost certainly exceeds IDR 600,000 per month.

"I don't think that number makes sense. That number is a number converted from the World Bank discussion. It should be a real number, yes, a regional minimum wage, be it an UMK or UMP. So, it's different, but we can take the bobotizer," explained Rissalwan, Sunday, August 3, 2025.

BPS itself defines poor people as residents who have an average per capita expenditure per month below the poverty line.

In the period March 2024, the poverty line is IDR 595,242 per capita per month.

According to Rissalwan, the poverty line reference in Indonesia is too low, not without reason.

With a poverty line designed like that, the number of poor people recorded can be trimmed.

Moreover, he continued, many people in Indonesia can still survive with an income of Rp. 1 million per month.

"So, BPS is indeed a tool for state legitimacy so that they are satisfied with a number of figures that show that the government is successful. BPS has a methodology explanation as well. But, does it represent reality on the ground? I don't think so," he said.

Previously, BPS released poverty-level data in Indonesia for the period March 2025.

Based on the results of the March 2025 National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas), the poverty rate was recorded at 8.47 percent or lower than the September 2024 period, which was 8.57 percent.

The data also shows that the number of poor people decreases to 23.85 million people.

The poverty rate in rural areas is 11.03 percent and urban areas is 6.73 percent.

Compared to the previous period, the poverty rate in rural areas has decreased, while in urban areas it has increased.

This BPS data is contradictory to the contents of the Macro Poverty Outlook report released by the World Bank in April 2025.

In its report, the World Bank recorded 60.3 percent of Indonesians living below the poverty line or equivalent to 171.8 million people.

Moreover, Indonesia is currently being hit by a wave of massive layoffs along with economic growth which also tends to stagnate.