Covid 19: Battle between life and livelihood during lockdown

By Nisha Ganasen

Kechara Soup Kitchen is distributing food to people in the Kuala Lumpur area

(Source: The Star)

KUALA LUMPUR: Amid the nationwide lockdown and Covid -19 recession, people are suffering, especially the B40 category.

MCO 3.0, was announced by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on 28 May which lasted from 1 to 28 June, and was extended again beyond June 28 until daily cases fell below 4000. Only essential businesses were allowed to operate and people had been told to stay within 10 kilometres of homes.

During this tough time, Malaysia’s poverty rates have risen and urban poverty is even worse.

The Merdeka Center says in CNA it is no surprise that the country’s poverty rate spiked to 8.4 per cent compared to last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Like millions of Malaysians who are categorized as B40, Sathish Kumar Barathan, a 22-year-old teacher’s family had been impacted by this lockdown.

He shared that he had to work at his age so he could support his family to survive during the pandemic.

He had to push his dream of pursuing higher studies because his father was in an accident and could not work and his mother’s income was not enough.

“Things have been very difficult for her since her husband recently lost his job.

His savings are not enough to cover groceries, rent and utility bills in the long run.” said Siti Nur Habsah Binti Abu Bakar, a housewife.

Economic Affairs Minister, Mustapa Mohamed, recently shared in FMT that the pandemic had caused disturbances to many people’s income and exposed more households to poverty, with the poverty rate increasing from 5.6 percent to 8.4 percent in 2020.

Justin Cheah, operations director of the Kechara Soup Kitchen (KSK), which has locations in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and Penang, said it has begun seeing more people, including those from other states, and not just the homeless.

He also mentioned that they are seeing an increase in the number of people in need between 10 and 15 percent from the last lockdown.

“We did 45 days of continuous help for the B40 community in the Kuala Lumpur area.

We provide them with essentials such as rice, milk powder, fish, chicken etc,” said Amirdalingam Pasubathy, representative from Blues Brothers, a non-governmental charity organization.

In terms of people contacting them for daily essentials, there are comparatively more these days, averaging 120 people a day now, up from 80 during the last MCO, he added.