Sarawakians the poorest in Malaysia

More than 100,000 register under the e-Kasih programme.

KUCHING: Going by the figures for the e-Kasih programme to combat poverty, Sarawak has taken over Sabah as the state with the largest number of poor people in Malaysia. More than 100,000 people registered under the programme so far this month.

The candid admission comes from the Minister of Welfare, Women and Family Development, Fatimah Abdullah.

“A total of 102,549 people have since registered for the e-Kasih programme,” she said after chairing a meeting on the eradication of poverty here yesterday.

She said 26,335 of the total earned less than RM600 a month, putting them in the “absolutely poor” category, 31,441 earned RM920 or less and 9,633 earned RM1,500 or less.

She pledged that more mobile teams will be deployed to reach out to target groups to ensure that they get the aid they required.

“We will also determine the number of eligible people who are yet to register for the e-Kasih programme,” she said.

Fatimah said mobile teams managed to reach out to five hotspots last year and approved 676 of 2,072 applications for aid.

“For this year, we are reaching out to several other hotspots,” she added.