Banyumas claims to have 144,000 poor families

Banyumas claims to have 144,000 poor families

Agus Maryono, The Jakarta Post, Purwokerto

Almost half of the 1.4 million residents of Banyumas regency,
Central Java, live in poverty caused by the country's prolonged
economic and political crises, according to the regency's
Development Planning Board.

"The real number living in poverty in Banyumas is 604,000
people or 144,000 families," Budi Utami, head of the planning
board, said.

The number of people living in poverty has increased sharply
over the last three years, she added.

Utami said that there were 71,000 families living under
poverty line in 1997. "This means that the figure has jumped
drastically, more than 100 percent, from 71,000 families (in
1997) to 144,000 families (in 2001).

"We are very concerned about the situation. We wish
politicians would be more aware of this and start to think about
the people. Stop political foul play, which in the end disrupts
people's lives," she said.

According to Utami, the regency has its own method of
measuring poverty.

"A poor family's income is less than Rp 300,000 (US$30) per
month, And they can only afford to educate their children as far
as junior high school."

According to the regency standard, a poor family has no
permanent house and the head of the family has no permanent job.

"They also cannot afford to go to the doctor whenever family
members get sick," said Utami. "They only have staple food, with
very inferior nutrition for their daily meals.

"We have many families that fall within that category," she
said.

Meanwhile, the head of the economic office at the regency,
Rofik Widadi, confirmed Utami's claims, saying that many people
had lost their jobs. "Dismissals and layoffs have taken place
almost everywhere.

"The number of poor people is increasing both in urban and
rural areas. But most poor families live in the districts of
Cilongok and Gumelar where the residents are farmers who have no
land to cultivate. They just do agricultural-related business,
like the palm sugar home industry, for other people," said Rofik.

The administration has tried to reduce poverty. "But all we
have done seems to be fruitless as the price of staple food and
basic needs have yet to stabilize due to the fluctuation of the
rupiah against the U.S. dollar following all the political
instability.

"Since the economic crisis hit the country three years ago,
the (central) government introduced social safety net programs.
The money the people collected from the programs were used
entirely for their daily meals, instead of for producing
something.

"The farmers' credit scheme (KUT), which involved billions of
rupiah, also failed. The money the farmers borrowed from the
village cooperative was used to buy food and basic needs. The
scheme became stagnant long ago after many farmers could not
repay the loans.

The latest efforts made by the government to help poor people
was the cheap rice program. "A few months ago we spent more than
Rp 1 billion to buy rice for some 50,000 families. The rice was
sold to them for Rp 1,000 per kilogram, or Rp 500 lower than
market price."