City's poor to get free health care

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta

In an effort to improve the city administration's poverty alleviation scheme, the City Council plans to issue a special card that will enable its holders to enjoy free, or at least affordable, education and medical treatment.

"The council will ask the administration to upgrade the existing database on poor families in the capital. We expect the database to be completed in the first semester of 2005 so those families can obtain the cards immediately that will attest to their financial condition," Ahmad Heryawan of Commission E, which oversees people's welfare, said on Thursday.

The council also suggested the new database be verified annually to make sure that they receive the subsidy from both the city administration and the central government.

Heryawan further said that the council intended that the new scheme give various discounts for education and medical services based on the recipients' poverty level, the criteria for which will be determined later.

"Under this scheme, some of the poor can have discount of 25 percent, 50 percent, or 75 percent, while the poorest will not pay at all," he said.

He estimated between one million and 1.5 million Jakarta residents would be classified as disadvantaged based on their low access to education and health services. Jakarta has a population of 8.3 million at night, and about 12 million during office hours, as many live in the satellite cities outside Jakarta, but work in the city.

He lamented that the current database of poor families at the administration fell did not cover all the needy so that much of the subsidy failed to reach the targeted families.

"We estimate that currently the poverty alleviation scheme only covers 20 percent of the actual poor families in the city," he said.

Separately, National Commission on Child Protection chairman Seto Mulyadi said that the commission had proposed to the administration that it scrap the administration fee for Jakarta residents to obtain birth certificates.

"We have asked Governor Sutiyoso, as part of the campaign in observance of the National Children Day on July 23, to scrap the fee, especially for street children and children from poor families who have no money to process their birth certificates," Seto said.