THE World Bank classifies Malaysia as highly urbanised, with more than 75 per cent of the country living in urban areas. After all, 24.1 million Malaysians live in urban areas. But among the dwellers of plenty live the many urban poor.
According to a United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) report titled “Children Without: a study of urban child poverty and deprivation in low-cost flats in Kuala Lumpur” published in February, one in three households earned less than RM2,000 a month.
At least a fifth of the households in 17 low-cost housing areas covered by the Unicef study had three generations living in the household. Yes, among the Maserati moments there is much misery.
Even Federal Territories Minister Khalid Samad has raised his concern. He said low household income, lack of skills and the increased migration of rural folk and foreign workers have been identified as among the reasons for the rise in urban poverty.
Now that we know this, what should be done? Plenty, really. The government can begin by connecting the urban poor with the job markets, as the World Bank suggests in its study of the urban poor in East Asia and Pacific cities.
But there is a problem. Most of the urban poor are in the unskilled to semi-skilled categories. The Unicef findings say nine in 10 of the urban poor have semi-skilled or low-skilled jobs, meaning they are earning low wages. Perhaps an immediate remedy is for the employers to provide them fair wages, as suggested by Khalid.
But not many employers will be happy with this. Even the minimum wage of RM1,100 proposed by the government caused such a national din by the Malaysian Employers Federation.
For the long term, though, industry players and policymakers have to come together to provide avenues for the workers to learn the skills of high-paying jobs.
The World Bank’s experience shows that cities, such as Hanoi and Ho Chin Minh in Vietnam and Shanghai in China, have gained a lot from such partnerships. The two countries have also done a good job in connecting the urban poor to jobs by making it easier for them to commute to where their skills are needed. There may be a lesson here for our cities to adopt.
Moving forward, policymakers need to bring the urban poor from without. They have long remained outside the city planning and design decision process. Including the urban poor in such a process will ensure equitable and liveable cities for all no matter what the income level is. If we want to make the urban poor upwardly mobile, we must arm them with education.
The urban poor are an important part of the country’s economic equation. The current heads of the urban poor households may not be a beneficiary of these ideas, but at least their children will be. A Malaysia that has its sight on being a developed nation must keep the urban poor in constant view. Leaving them behind is not an option.