e-Kasih database will be improved - Mustapa

KUALA LUMPUR: The government will improve the e-Kasih database to ensure that micro data can be obtained to identify the poor and hardcore poor in the country.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Economy), Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said this followed suggestions from several MPs that the data needed to be reviewed. Malaysia, he added, needed micro data at the grassroots level so that aid could be channelled to those really in need.

"According to the e-Kasih data, there are around 510,000 poor households. Data from the Malaysian Statistics Department show the hardcore poor comprising 0.4 per cent in 2019 and the poor (5.6 per cent), but according to the e-Kasih data, they are almost the same.

"This is among the challenges we currently face," he said at a media conference after disclosing the results of the Permatang Pauh Multidimensional Poverty Study at Universiti Malaya (UM), here, today. Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar was also present.

The study, led by former UM economics professor, Fatimah Kari managed to identify the various dimensions of deprivation faced by the poorest segment in Permatang Pauh.

The study was aimed at outlining an alternative technique to measure poverty in a holistic manner to show the realities of poverty on the ground so that aid could be channelled to the targeted groups.

On the progress of the Social Protection Database (PDPS), Mustapa said the integrated database pertaining to poverty eradication and social aid programmes, was now in its final stage and would be launched in a month.

The e-Kasih system, developed by the Implementation Coordination Unit of the Prime Minister's Department, is a national-level integrated database system on poor households to assist in the planning, implementation and monitoring of poverty eradication programmes.

-- BERNAMA