Regarding Poverty Reduction In Indonesia, Observers: The Government Must Focus On Educational Problems To Social Protection

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani said extreme poverty is one of the government's focuses this year.

This is because Indonesia's economic growth, which is predicted to reach five percent, will go hand in hand with the widening gap level.

Therefore, the government will use the fiscal instrument of the State Budget (APBN) to overcome this problem.

Responding to this, Economist and Executive Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) Bhima Yudhistira said extreme poverty in Indonesia could not be completely lost.

This is because poverty in Indonesia is not only due to the economic cycle, but also structural poverty.

"(Cycling poverty) is one of the challenges due to the effects of the pandemic, inflation, rising food prices, increasing non-subsidized LPG, then increasing fuel by 30 percent, but there is also extreme or structural poverty, if this is a different handling," Bhima told reporters in the Kebayoran Baru area, South Jakarta, Thursday, January 19.

As is known, based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the number of poor people in Indonesia rose 0.20 million to 26.36 million people as of September 2022. Meanwhile, in terms of the Poverty Line (GK), the percentage rose 5.95 percent to IDR 535,547 per capita every month.

According to BPS, there are four factors that cause an increase in the poverty rate in Indonesia, including adjustments to fuel prices, rising prices for basic commodities, high working population figures affected by the pandemic and layoffs, and economic conditions in the third quarter of 2022.

According to Bhima, the data submitted by BPS is still incomplete, as described by the World Bank. Meanwhile, if you use World Bank data, the number of poor people in Indonesia will be much higher.

"Indeed, the BPS poverty line is consistent, but it also needs to be completed from the poverty line through the world bank, so there will be more poor people in Indonesia, don't just focus on one indicator," he said.

To alleviate structural poverty, said Bhima, the government must focus on overcoming problems in the fields of education, health, and social protection.

"Social protection in 2023 is only 2.25 percent of GDP, this needs to be encouraged by the government. Then, social assistance, wage subsidy assistance, it must be increased. Apart from the BSU, there is also PKH, the important thing is that the data is right on target," he concluded.