To the government, Rafizi said, eradicating poverty means lifting the reported number of hardcore poor families each year out of their impoverishment.
“For example, in 2022, (there were) 18,445 hardcore poor families nationwide, as officially reported,” he told the Dewan Rakyat today.
“Therefore, government programmes that are officially monitored indicate that these 18,445 families, any family in Malaysia, have been lifted (out of poverty).”
He said the official reports determining the number of hardcore poor on an annual basis serve as the target for government initiatives aimed at eradicating poverty, given how the poverty line changes from year to year.
“If there are 20,000 (families), then 20,000 (families) will be lifted out. If there are 40,000 (families), then 40,000 (families) will be lifted out,” he said.
“Zero hardcore poverty or eradicating hardcore poverty does not mean that there are no poor people in the country because poverty is relative. If that were the case, there would be no need for government (intervention) or zakat.”
Hardcore poor refers to households with a monthly income of less than RM1,169, while those in absolute poverty have an income of less than RM2,208.
Rafizi was responding to a supplementary question from Ismail Muttalib (PN-Maran) on whether Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s pledge to eliminate hardcore poverty was merely to boost public morale.
In June last year, Anwar said he wanted the entire government machinery to work together to eradicate hardcore poverty in the country by 2023.
He repeated the government’s pledge on Sept 11 when tabling the 12th Malaysia Plan mid-term review in the Dewan Rakyat.
However, he admitted to the lower house that as of Aug 15, the government was “still struggling to lift nearly 114,000 hardcore poor families out of poverty”.
Rafizi previously said that the central database hub, or Padu, would enhance the government’s ability to accurately gauge the socioeconomic status of the population and mitigate disparities linked to disposable income.