Fatimah: 100,050 poor registered in Sarawak, data deadline extended
MIRI: The number of poor people registered in Sarawak had increased to 100,050 as of April 8 and the figure is expected to increase further when registration closes by year end.
Minister of Welfare, Women and Family Development, Datuk Fatimah Abdullah, thanked the Federal government for extending the deadline in Sarawak from end of April, to allow more poor families to receive the necessary assistance from the government.
Currently, she said 2,566 people out of the total 99,944 registered under the E-kasih have not received any kind of assistance.
“This information (on poverty) is important to help prioritise for them any kind of programmes or assistance introduced by the government,” she told reporters after chairing the 2nd meeting for the state-level Poverty Eradication Focus Committee in Miri yesterday.
It was attended by Residents, and District Officers ( District Chairman of the Committee), and the relevant implementing ministries and agencies.
According to Fatimah as of April 1, a total 99,944 household in the state were registered living below poverty line.
“A total of 28,267 registered as hard core poor, have a monthly household income of RM600 and below, 30,741 ( poor with monthly income of RM920) and those categorised as at risk to become poor with monthly income of RMRM1,500 and below is 29,518.
At the moment, 11,418 households have been successfully removed from the list of below poverty line because their income had increased above RM920, while some have died,” she said.
She is optimistic with the implementation of the various poverty eradication programmes, more people would be taken out of the poverty data.
Fatimah said “under the 1Azam programme, the KPI is to help 7,500 participants from this Ekasih and last year we surpassed the figure. This year we intend to do more. We also hope to make sure that the participants increase their income by RM300, within three months in a year.”
She hoped that local authorities will intensify their awareness programmes so that the grass root leaders such as the Penghulu, or Kapitan could reach out to the target group and help them. Among the assistance they could give was the RM124 monthly house rent allowance for the urban poor as currently not many are aware of the assistance.