Why Spending-Based Poverty Metrics Fail to Reflect the Realities of Indigenous Life in Kalimantan

 

The Dayak are not poor; they are stewards of the land, protectors of heritage, and leaders in sustainable living. Photo credit: the author.

BORNEOTRAVEL - PONTIANAK: Measuring poverty by how much money a person spends is deeply flawed—especially in Kalimantan, where many indigenous Dayak communities live self-sufficiently from the land.

The national poverty line, as published by Indonesia’s Central Bureau of Statistics (Badan Pusat Statistik), currently stands at Rp609,160 per capita per month (roughly Rp20,305 per day). 

Spending Metrics Don't Tell the Whole Story

According to this standard, anyone spending less is considered poor. But this metric doesn’t align with the lived reality of rural and forest communities in Kalimantan. 

For generations, Indigenous Dayak families have built livelihoods that don’t revolve around cash. They don’t rely on grocery stores, rent payments, or monthly utility bills. Instead, their lives are deeply rooted in self-sufficiency, where survival and well-being come from working with the land—not from shopping in a marketplace.

In these communities, people grow their own rice, vegetables, and tubers. They fish in rivers and ponds, forage from forests, and use traditional knowledge to gather medicine, wood, and other essentials from nature. Homes are built using local materials, passed down from generation to generation—no mortgages, no rent. 

Energy often comes from small-scale local solutions, and communal life is guided by cooperation and kinship rather than transactions. In this setting, "poverty" in cash terms simply doesn't make sense.

By any reasonable standard, these communities are not just surviving—they’re thriving. Their way of life is resilient, ecologically sound, and socially cohesive. 

Compared to many urban residents who are vulnerable to rising prices, debt, and job insecurity, Dayak communities are often more secure. They may not spend money in the way national statistics measure, but they live with dignity, autonomy, and abundance rooted in the land. That’s not poverty—it’s a different model of prosperity.

Self-Sufficient Without Cash: A Kalimantan Way of Life

In many villages across Kalimantan, life revolves around:

1. Community-owned rice fields and farms producing rice, corn, cassava, and vegetables
2. Fish ponds and rivers that provide daily protein
3. Customary forests offering food, medicine, wood, and rattan
4. Self-built houses—not rented or mortgaged
5. Kinship-based support systems, not market transactions

These families don’t shop for food, don’t pay electric bills in many cases, and don’t have recurring monthly expenses like city residents. Yet under BPS metrics, they’re classified as poor simply because they don’t use cash regularly.

Rethinking the National Poverty Standard

The poverty indicators used by BPS are based on national consumption norms, including food and non-food spending. As explained by BPS Deputy for Social Statistics, Ateng Hartono, these indicators reflect urban lifestyles and cash-based consumption. This approach:

1. Centers on urban economic models
2. Ignores subsistence economies
3. Overlooks indigenous autonomy
4. Disregards local values and sustainable living

Communities that depend on local ecosystems, without relying on money, demonstrate food resilience and ecological wisdom. Their lives are sustainable—just not “profitable” by the national accounting system.

Time for a Multidimensional Poverty Approach

Indonesia needs to move beyond one-size-fits-all poverty metrics. It’s time to adopt a multidimensional poverty index that includes:

• Land tenure and access rights
• Local food security
• Environmental health
• Social participation and cohesion

Let’s recognize that well-being isn’t always measured in currency. Let’s stop labeling indigenous communities as "underdeveloped" simply because they don’t live like city dwellers.

Current cash-based poverty measures fail to capture the lived richness of Dayak communities in Kalimantan. They are not poor. They are stewards of ancestral lands, of tradition, of sovereignty—living sustainably with what nature provides.

That’s how the Dayak people of Kalimantan live.
They are not poor.
They are self-sufficient, deeply connected to nature, rooted in local wisdom, and living in balance with the land.
They grow their own food, build their own homes, and share resources through kinship—not currency.

True wealth is not what’s in your wallet,
It’s what’s in your granary, your forest, and your community spirit.

Because poverty isn’t the absence of cash.
It’s the absence of choice, land, dignity, and connection.

Let the world know:
The Dayak are not poor.
They are keepers of the land, guardians of heritage, and pioneers of sustainable living.

-- Masri Sareb Putra, M.A.