Vice President Ma'ruf Reminds The Distribution Of Social Assistance To Be Right On Target

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin/PHOTO VIA ANTARA

JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin who also serves as Chairman of the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K) emphasized the accuracy of the social assistance program (bansos) to eradicate extreme poverty.

"The Vice President reminded that the provision of well-targeted social assistance is very important, but needs to be supported by empowerment programs," said Spokesperson for Vice President Masduki Baidlowi in a written statement, Thursday, February 17.

The government targets the eradication of extreme poverty in the country to 0 percent by the end of 2024.

In 2022, President Jokowi sets out to eradicate extreme poverty in 212 districts in 25 provinces which constitute 75 percent of extreme poverty pockets.

"This empowerment program in outline is an access to employment program, a skill improvement program, a MSME capacity building program, and a basic infrastructure fulfillment program," added Masduki.

These empowerment programs are spread across various ministries/agencies with a total budget of more than IDR 170 trillion.

Meanwhile, based on data from the Ministry of Finance, the budget for overcoming poverty and eradicating extreme poverty in 2022 through the Social Assistance program was recorded at around IDR 282 trillion taken from the APBN.

Seeing the size of the available budget, Vice President Ma'ruf asked the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, to coordinate the implementation of this empowerment program so that it is truly accepted by the target group.

"According to the vice president, these various programs need to be coordinated so that they are right on target and there is convergence to ensure that all programs are implemented targeting the same target and area," said Masduki.

In addition to being right on target, the Vice President also highlighted the problem of data on the distribution of social assistance.

"The vice president asked that the data collection of households that fall into the category of extreme poverty be carried out accurately so that later the provision of social assistance is expected to stimulate local economic activities and encourage the reduction of poverty," said Masduki.

The data source is requested to be improved by using the main source from the BKKBN data collection which is relatively new and has a ranking method as input for improving the Ministry of Social's Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS).

"The TNP2K secretariat under the coordination of the Vice President is ready to help repair the DTKS," he said.

According to the Vice President, the most competent institution to collect this data is the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

"As is well known, data collection on poor and vulnerable households that will be used as the basis for distributing social assistance must be carried out door to door for all poor and vulnerable households, so it cannot be done in a short time," said Masduki.

He also explained that the President and the Vice President have agreed that for areas that are difficult and not yet reached by banks, the distribution can be done by PT Pos.

"However, for areas that are affordable by banking, distribution is still carried out through banks. This is also to support financial inclusion so that all levels of society, including those who are less fortunate, have access to banking so that they are more flexible in carrying out economic activities," said Masduki.