KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 — About 140,000 hardcore poor families in Malaysia will be removed from the category in three and a half years through the implementation of various programmes to help increase their income, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said regular and structured monitoring will be carried out every month and intervention measures will also be taken if needed.

"We will take appropriate measures to ensure that these hardcore poor families can be removed from the list,” he said during the question and answer session in Parliament.

He said this in reply to a question from Datuk Mohd Fasiah Mohd Fakeh (Bersatu-Sabak Bernam) on the number of people categorised as hardcore poor from 2020 to date, and the government’s measures to eradicate hardcore poverty.

Mustapa said a total of 44,829 household heads were categorised as hardcore poor in 2020 based on the National Poverty Data Bank or eKasih managed by the Implementation Coordination Unit under the Prime Minister’s Department.

"However, following the adoption of the 2019 poverty line income methodology as well as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of hardcore poor has increased to 144,932 household heads as of June 30, 2022,” he said.

Mustapa also said that the Keluarga Malaysia Hardcore Poverty Eradication Programme (BMTKM) would complement existing programmes to address the issue of poverty across all ethnic groups in the Malaysian family.

"BMTKM will be implemented in 1,000 localities within three years and six months. The first phase began in June 2022 involving 80 localities on a pilot basis,” he added.

Elaborating, he said among the programmes to be implemented are agricultural, livestock, entrepreneurship and marketing projects as well as motivational programmes.

"The estimated additional income that will be generated is between RM300 and RM1,000 a month,” he said. — Bernama