Indonesian Govt Readies Special Social Assistance to Address Extreme Poverty

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The Coordinating Minister for People’s Empowerment, Muhaimin Iskandar, said the government is preparing a special social assistance program for 3.1 million people living in extreme poverty. The program is targeted to achieve its goal within the next 6 months.

“We are targeting 3.1 million people in extreme poverty to receive the assistance for the next three months. The following three months after that are expected to reach those still productive to work,” he said in a press conference after leading a ministerial-level meeting to accelerate poverty alleviation held at his office in Central Jakarta on Thursday, January 30, 2025.

Based on data presented by the Acting Head of Statistics Indonesia (BPS), Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti, extreme poverty is categorized with the World Bank standards, which is $2.15 per capita or around Rp391 thousand per capita per month. There are approximately 790 thousand families in Indonesia included in this category.

On a broader scale, the poverty rate in Indonesia is currently 8.57 percent of the total population, which encompasses around 24.06 million citizens living in poverty across the country.

Muhaimin Iskandar explained that the special social assistance will be implemented in three stages, with the first targeting 3.1 million people in extreme poverty.

In the second stage, the government will assist people in extreme poverty, who are within the productive age to work, to boost their capacity and ability to work more productively. In the third stage, the government will encourage those living in extreme poverty to independently improve their quality of life.

On the same occasion, Minister of Social Affairs Saifullah Yusuf stated that the government aims for an improved social assistance index, with the first stage focused on social guarantees. “Empowerment comes after,” he said.

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