Social Assistance Can't Make People Get Out Of Poverty, This Is Why The Word INDEF

Photo illustration. (Doc. Freepic)

JAKARTA - The social assistance program (bansos) participating in the 2024 presidential election is not enough to get people out of poverty according to Deputy Director of the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) Eko Listiyanto.

"To get people out of poverty, it's not enough with social assistance," said Eko when contacted in Jakarta, Monday.

Reported by ANTARA, Monday, January 1, Eko said this when responding to the policy of eradicating the community from poverty offered by candidate pairs who still rely on social assistance programs to support the lives of poor groups.

He said that social assistance is a budget policy to maintain the purchasing power of low-income people so that it has a significant impact on maintaining the disabled income or income that is ready to be spent by the community so as not to decrease in the midst of pressures on the prices of basic necessities that tend to increase.

"The social assistance program will remain in the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN) of anyone who will win the 2024 presidential election," he said.

However, on the other hand, Eko assessed that the social assistance program (bansos) was not enough to get people out of the poverty zone.

According to him, other efforts are needed that can make people more productive and empowered through various training, mentoring, and providing capital support to run their economy.

"They need to be more productive, need to be trained, accompanied, supported by capital to be empowered and productive," he said.

In addition, he said, providing job opportunities is also something that needs to be ensured so that people have income so that in the end they no longer need social assistance.

In the vision and mission described by the 2024 presidential election participants, he said, strengthening and developing social protection are the main components offered to overcome poverty.

The pair Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar offered it by realizing a targeted social security system through a plus social assistance program (bansos).

The almost similar program was also offered by the Prabowo-Gibran pair, namely continuing the social assistance program that had been run by the previous government, accompanying the idea of lunch and drinking free milk which became their mainstay program.

Meanwhile, the Ganjar-Mahfud pair have formulated their program in vision and mission documents with a target of reducing poverty levels to providing social endowment funds.