POVERTY IN MALAYSIA

 

Poverty is defined as a lack of cash to support basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. Poverty, on the other hand, is much more than simply not having enough money. Some country in the world having poverty including Malaysia. Nowadays, Malaysia is still facing the poverty as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic. Malaysia's poverty rate increased to 8.4 percent in 2020, up from 5.6 percent in 2019. This is the first time the global rate of extreme poverty has increased in over 20 years. The pandemic is expected to increase the number of poor people by 119 to 124 million by 2020.

I used to believe that everyone in the country lived comfortably and adequately when I was younger. Unfortunately, as I grew older, I realised that reality is not what I expected because not everyone has a perfect and comfortable life. It's because I've seen many slum areas in this country. Aside from that, many people are experiencing job loss and other financial difficulties during the pandemic covid-19. According to the Human Resources Minister, 99696 Malaysians have lost their jobs since the implementation of the movement control order (MCO) in March and up till November 2020. This problem causes people troubles because they do not have enough money to buy food and pay their rent. As a result, many people seek alternatives such as running a business from home, but this is still insufficient. Therefore, the government has implemented various assistance initiatives, such as subsidies, allowances, and BPR, for all citizens, particularly those affected by the pandemic, in order to reduce the people's burden.

Above all, I am grateful that we have a government that cares about its citizens. It had greatly helped millions of people and ensured that citizens could live normal lives in this world. However, there are some issues that must be addressed in order for everyone to live a better life. The government probably can increase the social protection systems for protecting health, employment and income, with many new social protections because these systems are very important. In an indirect way, this is closely related to Sustainable Development Goals Number 1 which is end poverty in all its forms everywhere. And at last, I hope that our country can improve its social protection system so that everyone can live a life free of poverty.