By IANS
Kuala Lumpur : Malaysian Indians stand in the middle of the income and poverty levels charts, below the Chinese but well above the majority Malays, official data shows.
Indices of Poverty for 1995-2004 show that the average household income for ethnic Indians in 2004 stood at Malaysian 3,456 ringitt (Rs.41,026) a month, while the Malays, called Bumiputeras or sons of the soil, only had a monthly average household income of 2,711 ringitt (Rs.32,186) a month.
For the Chinese, monthly average household income was at 4,437 ringitt, Economic Planning Unit (EPU) director-general Sulaiman Mahbob has said.
There was “no truth that Indians are poorest community,” said the New Straits Times, quoting the figures released by Mahbob.
“The Hindu Rights Action Front’s (Hindraf) claims that the Indians are the poorest community in Malaysia are false,” it said Wednesday, referring to the group’s charge of economic discrimination by the government.
“Instead, statistics show that Bumiputeras have the lowest monthly average household income compared to the other two main races in the country, the Indians and the Chinese.”
According to Mahbob, the poorest people were the indigenous communities living in Sabah, Sarawak and the rural populations in Terengganu, Kelantan and Kedah.
The poverty indices show that the level for the Indian immigrants has fallen from 4.06 to 3.21 percent between 1995 and 2004.
However, it is a fluctuating graph in that the poverty level fell to 2.35 percent in 1997, only to rise marginally to 3.12 percent in 1999 and again fall to 2.87 percent in 2002.
The graph for the Chinese, too, has fluctuated, but from 1.54 percent, it has come down to 0.76 percent during the same period.
“Malaysia has managed to reduce the incidence of poverty and income inequality while achieving rapid economic growth and maintaining racial harmony,” he said.
Mahbob, however, conceded the need for a detailed and more in-depth profiling of the income and poverty levels among Malaysians.
“But now there is a need to go lower and examine the profile of people who fall under the 5.7 percent category, identify who they are and find out the reason they live in poverty,” he said.
“The poverty rate in our country was 5.7 percent in 2004 and we plan to reduce this figure to 2.85 percent by 2010, and to fully eradicate hardcore poverty by 2010,” Mahbob said at the start of a three-day international conference on poverty and income inequality in the 21st century.
Mahbob also said that a high level of inequality contributed to a high level of poverty since only a smaller share of income was obtained by those at the bottom of the income distribution.
“Moves to counter the inequality are already in motion and it will reach out to everyone who fall under the 5.7 percent category,” he said while stressing that eradication of poverty is irrespective of races.
United Nations Development Programme’s resident representative for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam, Richard Leete, said that one reason why households remained in poverty was the demographic trap.
“Poverty is often associated with demographic patterns, and in rural areas and least developed states, families have a higher number of children.
“And in such situations, adequate human capital, education, good nutrition and health cannot be provided and they appear to be locked in an intergenerational cycle of poverty,” said Leete.