D

espite having the lowest poverty rate among cities in West Java, Depok city has 45,900 residents living in chronic poverty, according to the government.

National Team for Alleviating Poverty (TNP2K) local government policy advocacy unit member Robi Sianipar said residents included in the chronic poverty bracket faced difficulties in attempts to improve their economic conditions.

'€œThe poverty is at a chronic level, so we need extra effort to fix the problem,'€ he said on Monday as quoted by tempo.co, adding that the residents also had poor access to health care and education.

Robi further said that more needed to be done to alleviate poverty in Depok.

'€œMany of the residents are unproductive elders or productive disabled. Their condition does not allow them to be productive,'€ he said.

The Depok Development Planning Board economic planning unit head Dewi Indriyanti claimed that the city had implemented a number of poverty alleviation programs.

'€œIn the education sector, we have given scholarships to poor students. We even have a free healthcare program for the poor,'€ she said as quoted by tempo.co.