Malaysia: Calls for social protection reform due to pandemic
Admin GHRTV
The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed social injustices around the world and also in Malaysia. Particular, the social assistance programs in Malaysia have massive gaps to cover social protection. The lack of legal and financial foundations of the programs resulted during the pandemic in unpredictable benefits. Especially the middle class is left behind, since the social programs targeted especially the poor people. On a positive note, this led to the mostly eradication of chronic poverty today. However, the middle class in the informal economy, which are neither rich nor poor, cannot access social insurance. Especially during the pandemic, many people got more vulnerable to poverty due to unexpected income loss or illness. Social protection is essential and needs to be covered fully through a reform of the social assistance programs.
Read more about the reform demand here:
https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/my-say-social-protection-policies-beyond-poverty-targeting, last accessed on 28/05/2021.
