95 Thousand People In Jakarta Extreme Poor, DPRD Considers Providing Social Assistance Not A Solution

Illustration-(Photo: DOK ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Member of Commission B for the Economy of the DKI Jakarta DPRD Gilbert Simanjuntak responded to the question of extreme poverty in Jakarta reaching 95 thousand people. According to him, the DKI Provincial Government must trace this condition. Because, said Gilbert, the distribution of social assistance (bansos) such as distributing basic necessities as not enough to be a solution to poverty alleviation in the capital city. Possibly, there are still residents with low economic abilities who are not included in the target of the social safety net program. "It must be investigated whether they don't get cards in the form of social safety nets. Because social assistance is not the answer. Social assistance is only an injection once to eat and tomorrow they can be hungry again. But if they have a social safety net, they will get continuity," Gilbert told reporters, Wednesday, February 1. Then, Gilbert continued, the DKI Provincial Government also needs to find out the cause of residents with the per capita expenditure of the extreme poor in Jakarta of only Rp. 11,633 per day, based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS). "Is it due to the inability to education, large transportation spending, or housing problems," he said. According to him, identifying factors that cause residents to be in this extreme poor condition can be the basis for determining government policies to improve the standard of living of their residents. "For example, if there are residents with disabilities, it means that they must be given a job that is in accordance with their condition. There are people who do not have a place to live but they have a job, so they are given a flat. So, the approach must be clustered," explained Gilbert. Based on data from BPS DKI Jakarta, there are still around 95 thousand extreme poor people in Jakarta as of March 2022, with an extreme occupancy rate of 0.89 percent of the total 10.7 million people. The calculation of the extreme poverty rate by BPS DKI Jakarta can be seen from the per capita expenditure per day below IDR 11,633 or the accumulated household expenditure per capita below IDR 350,000 per month. The Main Secretary of the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) Tavip Agus revealed, with the social assistance that has been disbursed by the DKI Provincial Government, there should be no extreme poor people in the capital city. “Actually, the people in DKI have intervened with various existing schemes. This is what the root of the problem is looking for, said Tavip on Monday, January 30.