DENPASAR ~

Professor of Udayana University Prof. Dr. Wayan Windia assessed the need for Bali Provincial Government in doing extensive and in-depth research to measure the success in alleviating the problem of poverty in Bali.

“This effort will obtain accurate data for planning further development programs related to various aspects of community life,” said Prof Windia who is also chairman of the research center of Subak, Udayana University in Denpasar on Thursday.

He said, research on poverty involves the type of poverty, the poverty line, where they are, and appropriate poverty reduction.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) of Bali noted, poor people in Bali reached 195.950 people or 4.76 percent of the total population of the island until September 2014, an increase of 10,750 people or 0.23 percent compared to March 2014 that reached 185.200 people (4.53 percent).

Although the poor in Bali has increased, but nationally, Bali is still ranks second as the region with the smallest number of poor people in Indonesia, after Jakarta.

Windia reminded, there are still quite a lot of poor people in Bali such as beggars and vagrants. It shows that poverty seems always remain, no matter how poverty alleviation programs have been implemented.

Therefore it is the duty of the government to continue to work to reduce poverty and continue to improve the welfare of the community, said Prof. Windia. Therefore, the support and participation of the community needs to be improved, especially entrepreneurs who invest in Bali. Similarly, the role of customs community in poverty alleviation in Bali should be maximized.

Windia added, the implementation of poverty alleviation programs in the food sector in Bali is lower than poverty reduction in education and health education.