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 rate in Malaysia in 2019 was at 5.6%.
Among the most important differences in the determination of this new PLI rate is that, it takes into consideration the optimal rate of needs as compared to the minimum needs. These needs include two important aspects which are, the food PLI and the non-food PLI such as housing and transportation.
The optimal need in this new PLI means the best amount or level to meet the needs of the household. For example, optimal food needs can be referred as healthy and nutritious foods to meet individual calorie needs. It is considered as one of the essential needs for the household to achieve well-being state. Determination of these needs are made by a group of experts and then matched with the item prices today.
In many dimensional of poverty, nutrition is indeed a priority. Not many of us understand the importance of helping the less fortunate group to meet their food needs at the optimum level rather than the minimum level.
If we remember, the UNICEF Report on “Children Without” (2018) which surveyed urban poverty and deprivation in PPR in Kuala Lumpur area found that about 22 percent of children under the age of 5 were obese, 15 percent underweight and 23 percent more overweight.
This condition indicates an unhealthy nutritional effect on individuals, especially to the less fortunate group. Meeting the minimum requirements does help individuals to survive. However, a healthy diet and consuming at the optimal level promotes a healthy growth and leads to improvement of individual’s standard of living.
The awareness to fulfil the optimal level as compared to the minimum level of food intake to the targeted groups such as the poor, students and others had actually existed for a long time. During the heyday of the Ottoman Empire around the 14th to 19th centuries for example, there was a food preparation centre known as imaret or public kitchen.
Basically, this imaret adopts the concept of waqaf where it is housed in a waqaf complex consisting of various institutions such as mosques, madrasahs, medical schools, hospitals, baths and others. According to Singer (2005) who studied on imaret, one of the public kitchens located in the ‘Fatih Complex’ Istanbul, provides food to more than 1500 individuals twice a day.
The main menu provided is a healthy and satisfying menu which is rice soup in the morning and wheat soup at night. Both soups were made daily with meat and parsley. The soups were also enriched with salt, onions, cumin, pepper, chick peas, squash, and sour grape or yogurt and chard. In addition, more than 3,300 loaves of bread were baked and distributed every day.
Today, the concept of public kitchen is still being passed on in a slightly different context both by government and non-government bodies. The targeted groups also are almost the same. For example, many countries run free meal programmes for students including Malaysia.
In India for example, the free meal programmes encourage poor children particularly in rural area to go to school. The meal is not just simply meeting the minimum basic needs to survive them from hunger but it is a set of healthy and satisfying food. With this programme, parents are motivated to send their children to school rather than asking them to work to help their families since they can be assured their children get a complete set of nutritious food at least once a day.
In the newly revised PLI Malaysia for example, the guidelines on optimal food requirement are based on the recommendations of the food pyramid by the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH). The optimal food requirement for a household includes fish, poultry/meat/eggs, beans and legumes, rice and cereal products, vegetables and fruits, milk and milk products and at the same time reducing salt, sugar, fat and oil intake.
In Islam, giving good food to people in need is a noble act and is greatly rewarded. It is narrated in Surah al-Insan verses 5-9 where Allah SWT mentions on those who give the food they desire and love to the needy and orphans and captives with a sincere heart.
Malaysia’s effort to draw a guideline of health and nutritious meal at the optimal level rate for a household must not been ignored. Although roughly the increase in PLI seems to increase the national poverty rate, however this impact might be temporary only. Therefore, any assistance received to match at PLI level must be honoured by providing nutritious food for the household as per guided so that our young generation may have the chance to have a better life than us.