KUALA LUMPUR: The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) strongly recommends the use of Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) in the future five-year development plans for the calculation of the poverty rate in Malaysia.
Suhakam in a statement today said the measurement is more accurate and would robustly calculate the intensity of poverty based on deprivations related to education, health and standard of living through a non-income/consumption-centric calculation of poverty.
“A more accurate calculation of poverty will enable policy-makers in identifying and targeting poverty-alleviation programs to the households, groups and individuals who require assistance and support.
“The government’s policy for B40 is clearly shifting towards the implementation of an MPI under the 12th Malaysia Plan (2021-2025) which will be aligned with the shared prosperity initiative encompassing three dimensions, namely economic empowerment, environmental sustainability and social re-engineering,” the statement said.
Recently, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights claimed that Malaysia’s poverty rate at 0.4 per cent is inaccurate, and pointed out an indication of poverty rate between 15 to 20 per cent is realistic.
Suhakam acknowledged that the official calculation for poverty in Malaysia, which measured absolute poverty being too low and does not accurately reflect the reality of the cost of living in both urban and rural settlements across the country today.
Meanwhile, the Commission also suggested for the implementation of human rights-based poverty alleviation programmes, which will include human rights standards in policy planning.
“We believe that such programmes should focus on affordable healthcare, employment, quality education, inclusive growth and bridging inequality, and not just absolute measures of extreme poverty,” it added. – Bernama
