Speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Bambang Soesatyo has asked village governments to get involved in the updation of poverty and population data, saying they are the ones that know their respective areas best.
“Data on poverty and other population profiles can be inputted digitally by village governments from village offices to the Ministry of Home Affairs,” he said in a written statement received here on Monday.
This will allow the Ministry of Home Affairs to have real and accurate big data on poverty or other population data sourced directly from the 83,458 villages in the country, he pointed out.
“Thus, we will no longer need to be busy about seeking poverty data,” he said.
He made the statement after receiving a visit from representatives of the Indonesian Village Governments Association (Apdesi), the Indonesian Village Officials Association (PPDI), and the National Village Consultative Council Association (Abpednas) in Jakarta on Monday.
Soesatyo believes that it will not be hard for village governments to participate in updating poverty and population data because every village has been equipped with computers and other digital devices that can support them in preparing the data.
According to him, village governments’ involvement in data updation can prevent the recurrence of errors in poverty data.
He further highlighted that there are many people who are not poor but are receiving social assistance, while many people who are poor are not receiving the assistance.
“This is due to inaccurate poverty data because of not involving village governments,” he added.
The meeting on Monday was attended by Apdesi chairperson Surta Widjaja, Abpednas chairperson Indra Utama, PPDI chairperson Widhi, Apdesi Advisory Council (MPO) chairperson Asri Anas, Apdesi secretary general Anwar Sadat, and Abpednas secretary general Deden Shamsuddin.
Source: Antara News