Poverty Eradication through Productive Welfare Approach in Malaysia

Abstract

Poverty has become one of the social problems in Malaysia. However, since Malaysia government launched the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1970, the poverty rate and incidence decreased over the years. There were many approach that has been used by the government to eradicate poverty, including aided the poor by financial assistance supported by the Malaysia Social Welfare Department (MSWD), one of the government agency. In 2010, the MSWD took an effort to initiate the Productive Welfare approach to help the financial assistance recipients to increase their income through entrepreneurial activity. It is hope that this approach will help them to become independent without depending on the financial assistance anymore, once they exit the poverty line. The Productive Welfare approach has been widely used in the western countries and South Korea to curb the poverty issues and at the same time to help the poor to be independent without depending on the government’s aid. It is hope that this approach will help the poor to sustain and enhance their social functioning and the quality of life