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Director General for the Handling of the Poor at the Social Affairs Ministry Asep Sasa Purnama monitored the distribution of cash social assistance in Cipondoh Subdistrict, Tangerang City, Banten Province, on January 10, 2021 ANTARA/HO-Kemensos RI

The Social Affairs Ministry has set a target to hand out social assistance to 17,496,185 beneficiary families (KPM) throughout Indonesia until the end of March 2021.

"In total, the number of beneficiary families will reach 17,496,185," Director General for the Handling of the Poor at the Social Affairs Ministry Asep Sasa Purnama noted in a press statement released on Saturday.

The number includes beneficiary families originally planned to receive the aid in April 2021, he remarked.

In March 2021 alone, the number of beneficiary families had reached 11,746,119 from 509 districts and cities nationwide, Purnama remarked.

"Hence, we are awaiting the updated data that will become available on Saturday night at 23:59 WIB at the latest," he noted.During the month of March 2021, the Social Affairs Ministry has handed out non-cash food assistance (BPNT) in stages to 10,496,451 beneficiary families comprising 4,502,451 on March 22 and 5,993,734 on March 25.

Social assistance for some four million beneficiary families will be distributed on March 29 and for some five million beneficiary families on March 30.

The social assistance to all beneficiary families was distributed earlier than projected owing to the assistance and support of the Home Affairs Ministry and provincial, district, and municipal governments, the acting chief of the Center for Social Welfare Data and Information at the Social Affairs Ministry stated.

Moreover, it is inseparable from the role of provincial, district, and municipal governments to update data of beneficiary families and match their population numbers//ANT