Social Minister Gus Ipul Targets 0 Percent Extreme Poverty In 2 Years

Minister of Social Affairs (Mensos) Saifullah Yusuf or Gus Ipul (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Minister of Social Affairs (Mensos) Saifullah Yusuf or Gus Ipul targets to solve extreme poverty in Indonesia within the next 2 years. Currently, he said, the number of people who fall into the extreme poor category is 2.3 million people.

"Extreme poverty or poverty is 0.83% or 2.3 million people. We will try this extreme poverty within the next 2 years to reach 0%," he said at the Parliament building last Tuesday.

According to Gus Ipul, the party will also take steps to reduce Indonesia's poverty rate. Based on BPS data, said Gus Ipul, the number of poor people is 25.22 million people or 9.03% of the total population of Indonesia. His party is committed to reducing the number of poor people to 6% within 5 years.

"Meanwhile, the poor within 5 years are trying to get below 6%," he said.

On that occasion, Gus Ipul also explained a number of strategic challenges and issues faced by his ministry. First, the right target social assistance with single data is accurate and valid. Second, collaboration in the implementation of social welfare.

"Integrating the joint intervention movement between ministries, institutions, and local governments, the involvement of the private sector and philanthropy, in this case such as Baznas and so on, the allocation of DAK and decon funds for local governments," he said.

Then, the issue of meeting service standards is at least social affairs and dependence on social assistance recipients.

"Then the last is the uncertainty of the future or the age of life that continues to increase. The number of elderly people continues to grow. Then, there is a middle class phenomenon that goes down in class and the need for adaptive social protection against disaster events," concluded Gus Ipul.