Feeling of homelessness

About half the population lives just above the national poverty line. These ‘near poor' households are vulnerable to shocks such as food price increases, environmental hazards, and ill health, which can easily drive them into poverty. Despite recent improvements in education and health sectors, public services and health standards still lag behind other middle-income countries. High rates of child malnutrition and maternal mortality, and inadequate access to education, safe water and sanitation are persistent problems among poor communities.

Approximately 70 per cent of the population lives in rural areas, where agriculture is the main source of income. Poverty is increasingly concentrated in these areas; 16.6 per cent of rural people are poor compared with 9.9 per cent of urban populations. Millions of small farmers, farm workers and fishers are materially and financially unable to tap into the opportunities offered by years of economic growth. They are often geographically isolated and lack access to agricultural extension services, markets and financial services.
Poverty is most severe in the remote eastern islands of Indonesia, where 95 per cent of people in rural communities are poor. In many of these eastern provinces farmers eke out a largely subsistence existence. These provinces are home to many adat, or indigenous communities, who have often been on the margins of development processes and programmes. The coastal areas are environmentally degraded, while upland villages are the most disadvantaged and require development programmes adapted to the many constraints they face, including isolation and difficulty of access. Migration to urban centres is often the only way to overcome unemployment and poverty caused by lack of access to land and other productive resources.

Families who suffer from poverty, all of them have to live in a very small home