The newly revised Poverty Line Income (PLI) is a bold\nand mature action taken by Malaysia. Previously, Malaysia was proud to claim\nthat poverty had been eradicated to 0.4% in 2016. This rate was low compared to\nother countries including developed countries such as the United States. After\nthe PLI was revised, the absolute poverty rate in Malaysia in 2019 was at 5.6%.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among the most important\ndifferences in the determination of this new PLI rate is that, it takes into consideration\nthe optimal rate of needs as compared to the minimum needs. These needs include\ntwo important aspects which are, the food PLI and the non-food PLI such as housing\nand transportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The optimal need in this new\nPLI means the best amount or level to meet the needs of the household. For\nexample, optimal food needs can be referred as healthy and nutritious foods to\nmeet individual calorie needs. It is considered as one of the essential needs for\nthe household to achieve well-being state. Determination of these needs are\nmade by a group of experts and then matched with the item prices today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In many dimensional of\npoverty, nutrition is indeed a priority. Not many of us understand the\nimportance of helping the less fortunate group to meet their food needs at the\noptimum level rather than the minimum level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we remember, the UNICEF\nReport on \u201cChildren Without\u201d (2018) which surveyed urban poverty and\ndeprivation in PPR in Kuala Lumpur area found that about 22 percent of children\nunder the age of 5 were obese, 15 percent underweight and 23 percent more\noverweight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This condition indicates an unhealthy\nnutritional effect on individuals, especially to the less fortunate group.\nMeeting the minimum requirements does help individuals to survive. However, a\nhealthy diet and consuming at the optimal level promotes a healthy growth and\nleads to improvement of individual\u2019s standard of living. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The awareness to fulfil the\noptimal level as compared to the minimum level of food intake to the targeted groups\nsuch as the poor, students and others had actually existed for a long time.\nDuring the heyday of the Ottoman Empire around the 14th to 19th centuries for example,\nthere was a food preparation centre known as imaret<\/em> or public kitchen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Basically, this imaret<\/em> adopts the concept of waqaf<\/em> where it is housed in a waqaf<\/em> complex consisting of various\ninstitutions such as mosques, madrasahs, medical schools, hospitals, baths and\nothers. According to Singer (2005) who studied on imaret<\/em>, one of the public kitchens located in the \u2018Fatih Complex\u2019\nIstanbul, provides food to more than 1500 individuals twice a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The main menu provided is a\nhealthy and satisfying menu which is rice soup in the morning and wheat soup at\nnight. Both soups were made daily with meat and parsley. The soups were also\nenriched with salt, onions, cumin, pepper, chick peas, squash, and sour grape\nor yogurt and chard. In addition, more than 3,300 loaves of bread were baked\nand distributed every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, the concept of public\nkitchen is still being passed on in a slightly different context both by\ngovernment and non-government bodies. The targeted groups also are almost the\nsame. For example, many countries run free meal programmes for students\nincluding Malaysia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In India for example, the free\nmeal programmes encourage poor children particularly in rural area to go to\nschool. The meal is not just simply meeting the minimum basic needs to survive them\nfrom hunger but it is a set of healthy and satisfying food. With this programme,\nparents are motivated to send their children to school rather than asking them\nto work to help their families since they can be assured their children get a\ncomplete set of nutritious food at least once a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the newly revised PLI\nMalaysia for example, the guidelines on optimal food requirement are based on\nthe recommendations of the food pyramid by the Ministry of Health Malaysia\n(MOH). The optimal food requirement for a household includes fish, poultry\/meat\/eggs,\nbeans and legumes, rice and cereal products, vegetables and fruits, milk and milk\nproducts and at the same time reducing salt, sugar, fat and oil intake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In Islam, giving good food to\npeople in need is a noble act and is greatly rewarded. It is narrated in Surah\nal-Insan verses 5-9 where Allah SWT mentions on those who give the food they\ndesire and love to the needy and orphans and captives with a sincere heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Malaysia\u2019s effort to draw a\nguideline of health and nutritious meal at the optimal level rate for a\nhousehold must not been ignored. Although\nroughly the increase in PLI seems to increase the national poverty rate, however\nthis impact might be temporary only. Therefore, any assistance received to\nmatch at PLI level must be honoured by providing nutritious food for the\nhousehold as per guided so that our young generation may have the chance to\nhave a better life than us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The newly revised Poverty Line Income (PLI) is a bold and mature action taken by Malaysia. Previously, Malaysia was proud to claim that poverty had been eradicated to 0.4% in 2016. This rate was low compared to other countries including developed countries such as the United States. After the PLI was revised, the absolute poverty…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-straits-times","category-139","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}