Nearly everyone is feeling the pinch stemming from the pandemic but the intensity of suffering and difficulties varies with individuals.
That explains why government assistance has become more targeted at the needy, such as the urban poor, as we try to weather the crisis.
So long as the economic uncertainty remains, this effort should continue but data accuracy needs to be given serious attention to ensure no one is excluded from the assistance that they deserve and need.
The difficulties experienced by the rakyat are more evident now as most states are currently under blanket movement control order (MCO 2.0) as daily new local Covid-19 cases remain high at four digits.
Although the impact is not as severe as in MCO 1.0 as more economic sectors are allowed to operate, some businesses can’t seem to escape from being negatively impacted due to the need to adhere to the standard operating procedures (SOP), such as physical distancing, and many have started working from home, with inter-state and inter-district travel banned.
For instance, it was recently mentioned by Federal Territories Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa and reported by Bernama that there are more than 30,000 households out of the total population in the capital that have incomes below the poverty line of RM2,208, according to estimates.
If we look at the mean poverty line income in Kuala Lumpur, it is slightly higher at RM2,216. Based on the revised income group classification by the Department of Statistics Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur, households earning below RM9,150 are already considered B40.
Annuar Musa also added that this group of households cannot even afford basic necessities such as food, clothes and shelter.
Their inability to afford these daily needs, prolonged financial anxiety and the need to adapt to the new environment whereby almost everything goes online, would lead to other consequences which are already apparent such as mental health issues, particularly for the underprivileged.
Nonetheless, the exact number of families which fall under this category cannot be confirmed as various agencies are currently managing the matter, including the Social Welfare Department, Federal Territories Islamic Religious Council and the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department.
The dire situation could be explained given the higher cost of living that needs to be shouldered by people living in cities and it has been worsened by the pandemic.
This specific situation can be supported by the findings of EMIR Research Quarterly Poll for the fourth quarter of 2020 (4Q’20), which have just been released and are reflective of the ground reality based on the responses from 1,976 respondents coming from all states in the country.
Based on the poll, 76% of respondents experienced negative impact in terms of jobs while 74% agree that the economy was badly impacted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
To go into more detail, findings have also shown that the impact was felt more by the urban respondents.
In terms of the direction of the country and economy, the majority of respondents remain unsure when they were asked whether the country is on the right track (48% vs 54% in 3Q’20) and whether the economy is on a strong footing (45% vs 53% in 3Q’20).
Additionally, to support the evidence that it appears harder from an economic perspective for urbanites, the poll was joined by a larger share of urban respondents (70.5%) which is not too far from the real population of urban and rural in Malaysia – 76.6% and 23.4% respectively in 2019, according to the World Bank data.
These statistics call for urgent need to lend a helping hand to the vulnerable and low-income earners living in the cities as their low wages do not correspond with the continuous rise in the cost of living.
Therefore, the recent launch of 5MY Programme that was introduced last year and implemented by the Federal Territories Ministry is a welcome effort to eradicate urban poverty through five initiatives – employment through MYJob@Wilayah, schooling (MYSchoolBus@Wilayah), basic necessities (MYGrocer@Wilayah), food supplies (MYFood@Wilayah) and medicine (MYMedic@Wilayah).
These initiatives are also accompanied by a the MYBeras@Wilayah initiative whereby over 5,000 bags of rice will be distributed to the urban poor per week, an increase from 3,000 previously.
As a yardstick for these initiatives, it was stated by the prime minister that over 35,000 people and head of households, as well as residents of 331 low-cost housing areas in Kuala Lumpur have benefited from the 5MY programme last year.
MYJob@Wilayah has provided 3,259 employment opportunities last year and hopefully, this initiative will help a greater number of urban poor in a more sustainable way.
To do this, job opportunities should be coupled with appropriate wages, at least to afford basic needs (above the minimum wage level).
Perhaps to help them demand for high wages, the urban poor need to be educated or equipped with relevant skills that are required by the sectors they are involved in.
Another important area to further improve on is the accuracy of data for the urban poor population not only in KL but also in other states since it was mentioned by the minister that an exact number of families could not be confirmed due to the involvement of several agencies.
There should be a single platform whereby each participating agency can consistently share and update their statistics on the urban poor to ensure there are no overlaps and sufficient and appropriate assistance reach those who are in need.
Sofea Azahar is research analyst at EMIR Research, a think tank focused on strategic policy recommendations based on rigorous research. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
