Social Affairs Minister urges local governments to activate Puskesos and update poverty data

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Social Affairs Minister (Mensos) Saifullah Yusuf has urged local governments, particularly village heads in Malang Regency, East Java, to revive Pusat Kesejahteraan Sosial (Puskesos) centres in order to improve the quality of services and update poverty data. In a statement received in Jakarta on Monday, Saifullah emphasised that Puskesos plays a strategic role as the frontline in receiving and following up on community complaints regarding social services. “I want village heads to activate Puskesos to gather residents’ complaints, which will then be followed up through the Integrated Referral Service System (SLRT),” he said. As directed during his working visit to Malang Regency, Saifullah explained that active involvement from local governments, starting from regents, social services departments, down to neighbourhood units (RT/RW), is essential to update the National Single Socio-Economic Data (DTSEN). This aims to ensure that social protection programmes reach their targets accurately. Village heads and their teams have strategic authority in the formal channel to propose eligible residents for assistance or to remove data that no longer meets the criteria set by the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS). This data strengthening step is an implementation of Presidential Instruction No. 4 of 2025 on DTSEN. According to him, President Prabowo Subianto wants to ensure that all citizens in need of social protection, including children from vulnerable families, are reached by the government’s priority programmes.