Life gets harder for Pelus river rock smashers<\/p>\n
By Agus Maryono and Ngadi Utomo<\/p>\n
PURWOKERTO, Central Java (JP): The one-year-long economic
\ncrisis has brought increasingly hard times for the countless
\n\"strongwomen\" along the Pelus river who traditionally make a
\nliving smashing rocks.<\/p>\n
Not only do they earn less because the crippling crisis has
\nbrought construction projects to a grinding halt, they are
\nsuffering because their hard-earned money does not stretch nearly
\nas far as it used to.<\/p>\n
Although they realize that their income is hardly sufficient
\nto make ends meet, they are equally aware that they cannot
\nimagine doing anything else to help support their families.<\/p>\n
While women dealt a better lot are still setting their tables
\nfor breakfast, these women leave home at daybreak to collect
\nstones downstream of their village located in the Banyumas
\nregency. They carry the stones in pails along an ascending road
\nback to their homes.<\/p>\n
After a brief rest, they put the stones into a used tire and,
\nholding them with their left hand, they hammer the stones into
\npieces. Then the pebbles are placed at strategic points on the
\nroadside for potential buyers to see.<\/p>\n
In Banyumas, women stone breakers are found along fast-flowing
\nrivers such as the Pelus, Serayu and Logawa.<\/p>\n
These women live a life as hard as the stones they hammer. It
\nhas never occurred to them that they are likely to drown if the
\nriver overflows -- after all the river is part of their means of
\nsubsistence.<\/p>\n
Lasem, a 70-year-old residing on the banks of the Pelus river
\nin Karanggintung village, is one of these stone smashers. The
\ngray-haired, wrinkly faced widow who has seven children spends
\nall her days breaking rocks.<\/p>\n
She was doing just this when interviewed. Once in a while she
\nwiped sweat from her face. \"This is what a woman here does if she
\nlives close to a river,\" she said. \"I thank God, nevertheless. If
\nmy house were farther away, things would be even more difficult
\nfor me.\"<\/p>\n
She claimed that she could break up to two cubic meters of
\nstones in a month, which earns her Rp 40,000 (US$2.80).<\/p>\n
\"The money is enough to buy basic food for the family. If I
\nhave some money left, I spend it on snacks for my grandchildren,\"
\nshe said.<\/p>\n
She said she is becoming more bewildered with each passing day
\nas rice of low quality now costs Rp 2,200 per kg. \"I'm confused.
\nI don't know what age we are living in now. I don't think the
\nprice of rice is compatible with the price of a cubic meter of
\nrock.\"<\/p>\n
Lasem has been breaking stones for as long as she can
\nremember. Now she is assisted by one of her daughters, who also
\nhappens to be a widow.<\/p>\n
\"I used to break more stones when I was young. Now my children
\nadvise me not to work so hard because I'm already old,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Hammering stones, she said, had become the rhythm of her
\nheartbeat so, she says, she will not feel in good shape if she
\nstops for even one day.<\/p>\n
\"If I don't hold a hammer and smash rocks for one day, my hand
\nwill feel painfully sore.\"<\/p>\n
Now she rarely collects stone in the river because she cannot
\nstand in the water long enough. \"I cannot stand the cold. If I
\nstay in the water long enough I will have a relapse of my
\nrheumatism.\"<\/p>\n
Her daughter, Rati, 53, is now entrusted with this task. \"But
\nsometimes when I feel like carrying stones, I'll do so,\" she
\nsaid. \"Although I'm very old now, I'm sill strong enough to carry
\ndozens of kilograms of stones on my shoulders,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Lasem, known as a humorous woman, then shows off her fists and
\nthe muscles in her right arm. \"An old woman like me should no
\nlonger do this kind of job. But if I stop breaking stones, how
\ncan I feed myself?\" she added.<\/p>\n
Boom<\/p>\n
She said that when the construction business was booming, her
\nstones \"sold like hot cakes\". Pointing at a stack of about two
\ncubic meters of split stones, she said that now she did not even
\nknow where to sell the commodity.<\/p>\n
However, Lasem, who prides herself on what strength she has
\nleft at her advanced age, can still enjoy some consolation when
\nforeign tourists come to see her and take photographs of her
\nbreaking stones.<\/p>\n
\"Perhaps there are no stone-breakers like me in their country.
\nIt seems that most foreign tourists have never seen someone
\nbreaking stones for their living before. Some of these tourists
\noften take my picture and others just give me money for nothing,\"
\nshe said.<\/p>\n
\"But, I don't know why only very few foreign tourists have
\ncome to see me lately. In fact, the money from a foreign tourist
\nis the same as what I get from selling one cubic meter of split
\nstones,\" she said naively.<\/p>\n
Male and female stone collectors go to the Pelus river
\ntogether to collect stones but they have their own territories.
\nThe parts of the river where the men collect rocks are usually
\ndeeper than those for the women.<\/p>\n
Another stone collector, Kasih, 60, a widow with seven
\nchildren, recalled a time when she narrowly missed being carried
\naway in the strong current of the Pelus river when it overflowed
\nunexpectedly. She was in the men's territory when the pristine
\nwater suddenly turned brownish. A booming sound got louder and
\nlouder.<\/p>\n
\"As soon as the rolls of water started approaching, people
\nshouted my name. Then I left all the stone I had collected in the
\npail and ran away for safety,\" she said. Since then she has never
\ngone to the men's territory to collect stones.<\/p>\n
She added that men are, by convention, not allowed to go over
\nto the woman's territory because if they do, they will be
\nconsidered cowardly.<\/p>\n
In the female territory, women also wash their dishes and
\nclothes. When they return they always take a pail of rocks.<\/p>\n
Sair, 45, a mother of three, is one of them. After completing
\nthe washing, she leaves her clothes and crockery on a large slab
\nand then begins collecting stones.<\/p>\n
\"Although I come here to wash the dishes or clothes, I always
\ncollect a few pails of stones, which I usually put on the bank of
\nthe river,\" said Sair. \"When I have got enough stones at home, I
\nwill break them into small pieces,\" she said, adding that she can
\nbreak one cubic meter of stones in two weeks.<\/p>\n
Kaswati, 34, a mother of four, has to work hard to support
\nher husband, a pedicab driver. Like other women in the lower
\nreaches of the Pelus river, Kaswati has only the most basic of
\nformal education and therefore does not attach much importance to
\nfamily harmony.<\/p>\n
\"My children can occupy themselves after a meal, an occasion
\nwhen we usually get together. The most important thing is that
\nthey have something to eat. It is when they are out that I can
\nfind time to break slabs of rocks,\" she said.<\/p>\n
The same situation is also found in the downstream area of the
\nRiver Logawa, also in Banyumas. Married women make their living
\nworking as rock breakers, earning about Rp 2,200 a day. They
\nrealize that what they earn is not compatible with the energy
\nthey spend.<\/p>\n
\"I have no other choice. Unless I do this job, I won't have
\nmoney to buy food,\" said Satinem, 40. Her daughter Karti, 13,
\nhelps her, bringing more money into the family.<\/p>\n
Many elderly women in Banyumas have to survive by crushing
\nrocks without any help.<\/p>\n
\"My children are all married. They are poor, too,\" Nasitem,
\n50, said, adding that she had been doing this job for 10 years.<\/p>\n
These older women stone breakers generally say that they do
\nthis jobs to support their husbands, who drive pedicabs, work on
\nconstruction projects and so forth. Interestingly, many husbands
\nstay away from the stone-breaking business.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/life-gets-harder-for-pelus-river-rock-smashers-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}