By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, May 30: Sarawak intends to halve its extreme poverty rate by 2026.
According to a Sarawak Public Communications Unit (Ukas) news report, Sarawak Minister for Women, Early Childhood, and Community Wellbeing Development (KPWK) Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah stated that her ministry has established a special task force to identify the extremely poor in collaboration with District Officers, ‘tuai rumah’ (longhouse chiefs), and Village Development and Security Committees (JKKKs).
“We will identify who exactly falls under the category of extreme poverty in the e-Kasih database. For example, the breadwinner of the family may no longer be able to generate income due to various reasons such as old age and chronic illness.
“These are the categories of people we want to target to eradicate extreme poverty,” she was quoted as saying.
Fatimah, who is also Dalat assemblywoman, made the remarks during the closing ceremony for Sarawak Wellbest Carnival 2024 which took place recently at Dataran Tun Tuanku Bujang Phase 2 in Miri.
Ukas also reported that the minister revealed that there are 17,482 names in the e-Kasih database as of May of this year.
Fatimah said the numbers in the e-Kasih database may not accurately reflect the number of extremely poor people, as some of their economic situations may have improved with time.
She added that those who are extremely poor need to demonstrate that they belong to the target group for a period of three months starting this June.
The task force will also identify family members who can engage in income-generating activities and provide assistance of up to RM5,000 for them to carry out economic activities.
Meanwhile, the Wellbest Carnival, which ran from May 24 to 26, featured 107 sales and service booths from Wellbest Entrepreneurs from across Sarawak, as well as a variety of activities and competitions.
Also present were KPWK Sarawak Deputy Minister Datuk Mohammad Razi Sitam, Sarawak Deputy Minister for Public Health, Housing, and Local Government (MPHLG) Datuk Michael Tiang Ming Tee, KPWK permanent secretary Datu Felicia Tan Ya Hua, Sarawak Social Welfare Department director Adana Jed, and acting Sibu Division Resident, Christopher Ranggau Unting. — DayakDaily
