Malaysia's social equilibrium will collapse if the increasing trend of urban poverty is not arrested soon, warned a social worker based on findings of a survey of squatters in Kuala Lumpur.

Citing a United Nations Development Programme report, Jasmine Adaickalam, the service director of Yayasan Strategik Sosial ( YSS

), MIC's social arm, said the trend was worrying.

"According to the 8th Malaysia Plan (2001-2005), the poverty rate in Kuala Lumpur has also increased from 0.5 percent in 1995 to 2.3 percent in 1999, (a 1.8 percent increase)," she said when delivering a paper on 'Solutions and strategies to overcome urban poverty' at a national conference last Friday.

Jasmine said the increase in urban poverty could be due to factors such as rural-urban migration or the increase in female-headed households.

According to the YSS Micro Study 2000 report, she said the incidence of poverty in female-headed households stood at 16.9 percent, higher than the urban poverty rate of 2.3 percent in the country's capital.