There is a host of politically-motivated, well-intentioned, policy statements on women and poverty, yet they are not being followed up adequately with research due to inaccessibility to relevant information from government agencies, a senior researcher complained.

Citing the example of the chapter on 'Women and Development' in the 8th Malaysia Plan, Prof Dr Jamilah Ariffin (photo) asked whether such policy statements were backed by concrete action to encourage research.

She questioned the lack of specific funds allocated to nationwide study on women and poverty, or poor, female-headed households, the number of studies commissioned and completed so far.

In addition, "I've been unable to get any information to these questions because I've been sent from one department to another during my enquiries on my research subject," she said when presenting a paper on 'Solutions and strategies to overcome urban poverty' at a national conference last week.

Jamilah, a senior research fellow at Institut Sultan Iskandar of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, raised her concern over the increasing number of female-headed households in Malaysia, and the lack of research to address the situation.

Female-headed households are defined in the national Population and Housing Census 2000 as households where the breadwinners are widows, divorced or permanently separated and deserted with unmarried children living with them.

Gender discrimination

Figures show that close to one million Malaysian women are breadwinners for their families.

"There are not enough studies done on women and urban poverty in Malaysia. There are not enough sex-segregated census data on female-headed households and income level on which detailed research can be based on."

Citing several overseas studies, Jamilah, who wrote the first book to incorporate gender aspects in poverty analysis in 1994, said female-headed households are often the poorest of the poor with the lowest income due to several reasons, including gender bias by employers who consider them secondary income earners.

She said these women's burden of playing a dual-role as mothers and care-givers to children and old parents also prevents them from fully focusing on their jobs.

"Another factor is the lack of productive resources, due to less access than men, to land, capital and technology."

Among her suggestions are effective support systems to lessen the dual-role burden and adequate safety nets to enable these women to withstand adverse economic environment.

Jasmine Adaickalam, the service director for Yayasan Strategik Sosial (YSS), MIC's social arm, related a case study of a less-educated, unskilled, sickly single mother whose husband had abandoned her and their three schoolgoing children.

She lives in a two-room public housing flat in Kuala Lumpur with a take-home pay of RM796.75 after pension fund and social security deductions.

"This is hardly enough to survive in a city with young children to fend for. Though she falls into the low-income category under the current poverty measurement, in the long run her deficit budget will push her on a downward spiral into the vicious poverty circle."

New ministry proposed

In summing up the conference, YSS executive director Dr Denison Jayasooria (photo) said a specific government agency or unit with adequate human and financial resources was "critically essential" to address urban poverty.

Many speakers agreed that an urban development ministry was vital to effectively coordinate efforts to eradicate the country's urban poverty, given the fact that more than 60 percent of its 23 million people already live in cities. An estimated 70 percent will be urban dwellers by 2020.

The general consensus is that such a ministry would be better equipped to determine the level of urban poverty, identify pockets of the poor and administer concerted aid programmes accordingly.

"All agencies providing services such as housing, education, health, human resource development and welfare targeting vulnerable groups such as single mothers, squatters, the disabled, the elderly, the high-risk youths and families at high risk, should be strengthened.

"We also need to address 'ground feeling' and 'perception' on lack of access and problems faced by the urban poor in benefitting from the various schemes and programmes undertaken by government agencies," he said.

Denison also suggested that effective information dissemination and problem-solving mechanisms be set up to hear and address grievances.