BPS Data: In West Kalimantan, There Are 370 Thousand Poor People

Illustration (Angga Nugraha / VOI)

JAKARTA - The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) of West Kalimantan recorded that the number of poor people in West Kalimantan in September 2020 reached 370.71 thousand people or 7.24 percent of the total population of West Kalimantan.

"This figure has increased by 3.94 thousand people compared to the condition in March 2020 which amounted to 366.77 thousand people or 7.17 percent," said Head of BPS Kalbar Wahyu Yulianto in Pontianak, reported by Antara, Monday, February 15.

He explained that from that figure, the percentage of poor people in rural areas is more dominant than in urban areas.

"The percentage of poor people in urban areas in March 2020 was 4.69 percent, increasing to 4.86 percent in September 2020. Meanwhile, the percentage of poor people in rural areas in March 2020 was 8.50 percent, increasing to 8.57 percent in September 2020, "he said.

Related to the role of food commodities on the poverty line (GK) is much greater than the role of non-food commodities. The contribution of food GK to GK in September 2020 was recorded at 76.51 percent.

"The four types of food commodities that have the greatest effect on GK value both in urban and rural areas are rice, filter clove cigarettes, chicken eggs and sugar. Meanwhile, the three most dominant types of non-food commodities are housing, gasoline and electricity costs," he said.

To measure poverty, BPS uses the concept of the ability to meet basic needs. With this approach, poverty is seen as an economic inability to meet basic food and non-food needs as measured in terms of expenditure. With this approach, the headcount index can be calculated, namely the percentage of poor people to the total population.

The GK per poor household is an illustration of the average minimum rupiah value that a household must spend in order to avoid being categorized as poor. This value is the result of multiplying the per capita GK with the average number of poor household members.

In September 2020, on average, one poor household in West Kalimantan had 5.47 household members. So that the poverty line for poor households in West Kalimantan in the period of September 2020 is (IDR 474,259 x 5.47) which is IDR 2,594,197 / poor household per month.

The main data source used to calculate the poverty rate is the Consumption Module Susenas data. As additional information, the results of the SPKKD (Basic Needs Commodity Package Survey) survey are also used, which are used to estimate the proportion of expenditure for each of West Kalimantan's non-food staple commodities that has increased from March 2020 to September 2020.