Low-Income Communities In Surabaya Reaches 1,085,588 People, City Government Intervenes In Education, Health Services And Flats

Deputy Mayor of Surabaya Armuji /PHOTO VIA ANTARA

SURABAYA - Low-income communities (MBR) in the city of Surabaya, East Java, were recorded on January 26, 2022, reaching 1,085,588 people with a total of 383,208 families (KK).

Deputy Mayor of Surabaya Armuji said the number of MBR reached more than 30 percent of the total population of Surabaya which reached approximately 3 million people based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2020.

"Meanwhile, in 2021, according to BPS data, the profile of the poor population in Surabaya is 5.23 percent or 152,489 people," he said, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, January 26.

Armuji explained that the MBR database functions for service interventions carried out by the Surabaya City Government, in the form of providing food assistance, health insurance, education cost assistance, legal assistance and assistance with sanctions for population administration services, application for flats to uninhabitable housing programs.

This, continued Armuji, in accordance with the provisions of the Surabaya Mayor Regulation Number 58 of 2019 concerning the procedures for collecting, processing, utilizing and reporting MBR data whose changes are regulated in the Surabaya Mayor Regulation Number 53 of 2020.

The Deputy Mayor of Surabaya explained that the criteria for MBR are different from the criteria for poor according to BPS. The MBR ranking by the Social Service, he continued, uses a proxy means test by calculating consumption estimates.

Meanwhile, the results of ranking the household welfare of the citizens of Surabaya using the proxy means test method included in deciles 1, 2, 3 and 4 will be included in the MBR database.

"So this number is dynamic, it is clear that the Surabaya City Government wants to expand the reach so that all citizens are served, especially for those who need policy intervention," he said.

Armuji also asked the public not to worry too much about the number of MBR databases which reached more than one million people, so that the target of the city government's policy intervention could be further expanded.

"But we are also working hard so that all Surabaya residents can improve their welfare," he said.