Celios Assesses Labour-Intensive Programmes as Key to Boosting Village Economies

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) has assessed that labour-intensive programmes are capable of boosting job creation and the economy down to the village level. Celios Director of Public Policy and Fiscal Justice, Media Wahyudi Askar, stated on Sunday that the cash-for-work programme was previously initiated under the 2025 Economic Package. “Various labour-intensive programmes last year, which usually drive the village economy through the creation of daily wage labour, decreased significantly,” Media said. He therefore stressed the importance of the government’s role in addressing inequality and poverty, particularly at the rural level. Media added that one aspect likely influencing this inequality is the change in the decile of social assistance recipients, where certain deciles no longer receive specific social assistance programmes. “The number of recipients of social assistance such as the Family Hope Programme (PKH), Non-Cash Food Assistance (BNPT), Health Insurance Contribution Assistance Beneficiaries (PBI JK), and scholarships, also did not experience a significant increase over the past year,” he said. Previously, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) recorded a slight increase in the level of expenditure inequality among the Indonesian population, as measured by the Gini Ratio, which rose to 0.368 points in March 2026, an increase of 0.005 compared to the September 2025 figure of 0.363. BPS explained that the Gini Ratio has a value between 0 and 1, where a value closer to 0 indicates a more equal distribution of expenditure, while a value closer to 1 reflects a higher level of inequality. In March 2026, the Gini Ratio in urban areas was recorded at 0.387, while in rural areas it was 0.296. Compared to September 2025, the level of inequality in both urban and rural areas increased. Meanwhile, BPS recorded that the number of poor people in Indonesia decreased by 430,000 to 22.93 million people in March 2026, compared to 23.36 million people in September 2025. BPS also noted that the national poverty line in March 2026 reached Rp669,235 per capita per month, an increase of 4.33 percent compared to September 2025, which was Rp641,443 per capita per month.