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The House of Representatives vowed on Friday to pass a bill on poverty eradication into law by July at the latest.

Abdul Kadir Karding, chairman of House Commission VIII, which oversees social and religious affairs, said that with an estimated 34 million Indonesians living below the poverty line, it was crucial to pass the bill immediately.

“Our target is to pass the bill during the current sitting period, which ends in July,” said Abdul, who is from the National Awakening Party (PKB).

He added no laws had yet been passed to lift people out of poverty, despite the Constitution requiring that the state protect the poor.

The poverty eradication bill had been included in the list of priority legislation, or Prolegnas, since 2010, he said.

Under the bill, all poverty eradication efforts by the government will be coordinated by a single body. It will also extend existing cash handout programs, while also introducing empowerment programs for the poor.

Abdul said there were two issues in the bill that needed to be ironed out. The first was the question of whether a new government body would be established to coordinate poverty eradication, or whether the task would be delegated to an existing body.

The second issue, Abdul said, was the amount of the state budget to be dedicated to poverty eradication. The range being discussed was 3 to 5 percent — similar to the 5 percent dedicated to health but far less than the 20 percent allocated to education.

“Those two points are the last things we need to settle with the government,” Abdul said. “But we’re certain we can reach an agreement and meet our target deadline.”

He also said not all poverty eradication programs would be covered by the bill, with some categorized as social welfare and thus falling under the bill on the Social Security Organizing Body (BPJS), which is also under deliberation at the House.

“We’ll also be strict about the definition of poor, so that only those who deserve aid will receive it,” Abdul said.

The bill was not aimed at creating a welfare state where people lived off government support, but was essentially geared toward lifting them out of poverty through empowerment, he said.

Zulkarnaen Djabar, from the Golkar Party, said the bill was the top priority of Commission VIII.

He said poverty was a challenge that should be resolved because of its wide-reaching impact on other issues. “When people’s stomachs are empty, they can be easily influenced by extremist ideologies, for instance,” he said.

It was also essential to narrow the growing divide between the rich and the poor, he added.

Margowiyono, an official from the Social Affairs Ministry’s Directorate General of Social Empowerment and Poverty Reduction, said that although there were more than 30 million people classified as poor, less than half were eligible for support from the government.

“Only 13.75 million poor people will get assistance from the ministry because they’re categorized as very poor,” he said.

He also said the Social Affairs Ministry was the most suitable institution to coordinate poverty eradication efforts.

“We’ve been handling so many programs related to this issue, so I guess the ministry already has the requisite experience,” Margowiyono said.

“However, there will also be cooperation with other government institutions that helped draft the bill on poverty eradication, including the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, the Home Affairs Ministry, the Health Ministry, the Finance Ministry and Bappenas [the National Development Planning Board].”