Bandarlampung poor have low hopes for cash aid

Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung

The sun had just risen when dozens of traditional fishing boats returned to a small, rickety wooden dock at Panjang beach, Lampung Bay.

There a woman in her 50s, Maryam, waited with two big plastic bowls, ready to make an offer for the day's catch. She finally got what she wanted -- ray-fish. "Give me 10 kg, same price as yesterday right?" Maryam said.

The fisherman nodded and after Rp 30,000 exchange hands and her bowls were full, she left to her house some 20 meters away.

With her daughter in-law, Rodiah, Maryam cleaned the fish and cut them into four pieces. Dried under the sun and later in the day charcoal grilled, the fillets were taken to the market for sale.

In a day, Maryam can bring home up to Rp 60,000 when the fish sell out. Ten kilograms of fish, after being cleaned and cooked, will only weigh about three to four kilograms, selling for between Rp 12,000 and Rp 15,000 a kg.

"The profit is not much but I have to work or we won't eat. My husband is sick while my married son only works as a fisherman's assistant on a low income," Maryam told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

When the native of the West Java town of Cirebon heard that poor families would receive Rp 100,000 a month in low-income assistance funds from the government, she shrugged her shoulders.

"Just like other schemes, poor people like me never get the assistance. When the government provided rice for the poor, I didn't get it. When my husband was sick, I paid just like everyone else (at the medical clinics) although I had heard there was assistance for the poor."

On Thursday, Maryam had not been listed as eligible for the fund, which is scheduled to be distributed starting Oct. 1 as part of the government's move to help the poor, following its plan to raise fuel prices on the same day.

"If we could have a choice, we'd prefer being given assistance in the form of working capital that we could return after our business started. These days, we live difficult lives because we don't have working capital to start businesses. Our profit is so small that it is used up in one day just to buy meals," she said.

Her house in the fishing village in Lampung is a simple one, with a cement floor and wooden planks as walls.

Maryam's family is one of 4,000 poor families living along Lampung Bay in the Sukaraja area.

Many are not recorded on local subdistrict schedules; the way the government is determining who receives the funds -- in theory, at least.

"My neighbors are not listed to receive the funds either but we won't protest since we're used to being ignored. We'd rather work hard to earn our living," Maryam said.

According to Lampung Central Statistics Agency data, 705,454poor families are entitled to receive the funds across the province. In the capital city Bandarlampung, 52,713 families are supposed to receive the funds, with the most poor families eligible for the funds is recorded in South Lampung regency with 150,971 families.

The agency's head, Tjipto Sanjoto, did not provide details why not all the poor, including Maryam, being included in the list of poor families eligible to receive the funds. He said the agency would later reevaluate the number of poor families to ensure all receive the funds.

He said that the criteria to select the poor families eligible to receive the fund split them into three groups: "moderately poor", "poor" and "very poor" families, Tjipto said.

A family was classified as "very poor" when it all it could afford to meet its basic needs, including food, clothing and shelter, was Rp 120,000 a month each for four family members, or Rp 480,000 a month; Rp 600,000 a month total for "poor" families; and Rp 700,000 a month for "moderately poor" families.