Defending livelihoods in Covid-19

To protect the lower-income households affected by the Covid-19 crisis, especially those who work informally, income protection needs to be independent of coverage by formal social insurance like the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) or the Social Security Organisation (Socso).

AS Malaysia faces the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19), the battle is on to defend the welfare and livelihoods of people in the bottom 40% of household income. Three economic support packages have been announced.

The latest two are called Prihatin (which translates to “care”), focusing on supporting Malaysians who risk falling through the cracks. These include street vendors, micro-entrepreneurs, artists and other informal workers who have been gravely impacted by the crisis.