Poverty Alleviation Programs for Selected Single Parent Households: A Case Study in Baling, Kedah

Abstract

Poverty alleviation programs have been carried out in Malaysia for decades. However, poverty still exists in society and it seems to persist despite various efforts to alleviate it. The persistence of poverty among pockets of society is difficult to address. Intergenerational poverty is probably one of the reasons contributing to this scenario. Poverty is 'handed down' to the next generation and the cycle is hard to be broken. It is well documented in the literature that the incidence of poverty is more prevalent among single mother households whilst there is limited research on single father's issues. The methodology employed for this research is action research whereby an intervention will be introduced throughout the research period. The objective of this research is to develop specialized poverty alleviation programs for single parent households in Baling yet it is still in its preliminary stage. Hence, this paper provides descriptive information about the single parent respondents.