There Are 320 Thousand Families In Jakarta Who Have Not Received Social Assistance

Minister of Social Affairs. Juliari Batubara provides assistance to people in need amidst the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by: Ministry of Social Affairs)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Social Affairs noted that the distribution of social assistance (Bansos) in DKI Jakarta has not yet fully reached the poor. This is because the recipients of social assistance from the provincial government (Pemprov) are the same as the data that received assistance from the central government.

Social Minister Juliari Batubara admits that data problems are a challenge in the distribution of social assistance, especially social assistance in the form of basic foodstuffs in Jakarta.

"Indeed, in the field, almost in a dozen points, there are a lot or almost all of them who receive the Ministry of Social's basic needs assistance have actually received social assistance from the Jakarta Provincial Government," he said, in a working meeting with Commission VIII with the Minister of Rural Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration. virtual, Wednesday, May 6.

Juliari revealed that in fact there was an agreement with the Governor of DKI Jakarta Anies Baswedan, that the Ministry of Social Affairs assistance was intended for beneficiaries who did not receive social assistance from the Provincial Government. Initially, the DKI Provincial Government asked the central government to provide social assistance for poor people who did not receive assistance from them.

"What does it mean? They do not serve or will not provide the same data between DKI social assistance recipients and the Ministry of Social's basic needs assistance," he explained.

However, said Juliari, what happened in the field was just the opposite. The central government found chaotic data on basic food assistance recipients for the poor in Jakarta.

"But what happened in the field turned out to be the exact same data. We met this not at one or two points but at dozens of points. I myself have dialogues with RT / RW in the field and even with residents," he said.

The Ministry of Social Affairs, said Juliari, in distributing aid in Jakarta involved Subdistrict Social Workers (TKSK), Community Social Workers (PSM), Disaster Preparedness Cadets (Tagana) to obtain data in the field outside of the data provided by DKI Jakarta Province.

"We also use our pillars to get additional data. In addition to that earlier I said that there are still 320,000 families who have not received assistance," he said.

Reasons for Jabodetabek Not Receiving BLT

Juliari revealed that many parties questioned why the basic needs assistance was not replaced with direct cash assistance (BLT). According to him, the Ministry of Social Affairs initially wanted the same thing.

However, he said, the order given directly by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) was that special social assistance for Jabodetabek was given in the form of basic food packages.

"The president himself asked Jabodetabek to provide basic foodstuffs. The reason is that if cash social assistance is given, the money will be taken, taken back to the village. If they are given basic foodstuffs they do not need to go home, but we provide for their basic needs. So that's the president's request," he said.