POVERTY in Indonesia does not seem to have changed in the past decade. It was 17.70 percent of the total number of population in 1996, and according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), up to March this year, people categorized as poor numbered 39.05 million or 17.75 percent of the total population.

The government has attempted a number of remedies to ease the poverty situation, such as providing the poor with rice, and giving cash to compen