Group confident of achieving zero hardcore poor
KUCHING: The State Poverty Eradication Focus Group is confident of achieving zero BTBL ( Belum Terima Bantuan Langsung – yet to receive any assistance) KIR ( household head) in two months’ time.
Zero BTBL KIR means there will be no one who has not received any assistance from the government.
Minister of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said 383 out of 419 KIRs in the BTBL KIR list have so far received assistance this year.
The figures were based on the ‘ locked figure’ from the eKasih system.
“To achieve zero BTBL, it must be based on the locked figure and not the figure registered in the eKasih system,”she said when officiating at the opening of ‘ Zero Hardcore Poor Action Plan’ workshop at the old DUN yesterday.
eKasih is a system to register the poor, an ongoing process, so there are bound to have new names coming in and the numbers are always increasing.
If the state wants to achieve the target of zero hardcore poor category by 2018 and half the number of poor people by 2020, they need to be based on the locked figure.
“We will, however, continue to register the poor people in the eKasih system,” Fatimah added.
To be classified as hardcore poor, a household income must be below RM660. Those in the poor category make RM990 a month.
This target was revealed by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah during a Poverty Eradication Focus Group meeting last year as the group’s key
To achieve zero BTBL, it must be based on the locked figure and not the figure registered in the eKasih system. We will, however, continue to register the poor people in the eKasih system.
performance indicator ( KPI).
According to Fatimah, the total number of KIR eKasih in state as of Aug 15 is 115,935.
From the number, 23,282 of them are under the hardcore poor category, and 39,110 under the poor category. A total of 53,543 were removed due to several factors such as improvement in income, untraceable, and had passed away.
On the workshop, Fatimah said it was organised by the federal State Development Office (PPPNS) as an administrator of the eKasih system in the state and the secretariat of state-level Poverty Eradication Focus Group, with Fatimah as the chairperson.
Fatimah revealed that the locked figure for the hardcore poor KIR as of Jan 1 this year was 27,769 KIR and 37,081 poor KIR.
She also said there were various strategies and approaches taken to address the problem of poverty in the state, such as using the 1Azam programme, which comes under eKasih system.
The 1Azam programme was introduced under the government’s Transformation Progrramme’s Low-income Households National Key Results Areas in 2010.
It consists of Azam Tani which focuses on agricultural activities, Azam Niaga for small businesses, Azam Kerja which matches participants with jobs, and Azam Khidmat which assists participants with servicebased self- employment.
Datuk Fatimah Abdullah, Minister of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development