Credit scheme aimed at women launched

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Manpower Bomer Pasaribu launched a credit program on Friday aimed specifically at empowering women.

The program is called Grameen Bank and is adopted from the same program in Bangladesh. It is being conducted in coordination with the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) and the University of Brawijaya (Unibraw) in Malang, East Java.

The program provides interest-free micro credit or loans, along with vocational training.

"This program will hopefully reduce the number of unemployed in this country. And, in the future, it will reduce the number of female Indonesian foreign workers," Bomer said.

Recent estimates put unemployment here at about 36 million, with more women than men jobless.

"I must admit there are some gender issues here. Many employers would rather hire men," Bomer said.

The Grameen Bank program will be conducted in several regions in two provinces, West Java and East Java. In each province the program is projected to involve about 1,250 participants -- 99 percent of whom must be women -- who will be divided into 250 groups.

Each group will be mentored by a high school or university graduate.

The state budget has allocated a total of Rp 1.78 billion (US$198,000) for the project, some Rp 891 million (US$99,000) for each province.

Unibraw rector Eka A. Truna said that the university had conducted similar programs over the past six years, coordinating with Rotary International and local banks.

"We trained around 200 housewives and gave them freedom to choose their own businesses to run," he said, adding that the capital was only Rp 60 million at that time.

In Malang most entered the furniture-making business, while in Blitar handicrafts is the business of choice. The participants were selected from the poorest residents.

"The program works well. We now have around 2,000 members. The credit payment is also no problem as the bad debt rate is only 0.5 percent. Compare that to our (national) bankers," Eka said.

For this year's program, Eka said, the program will focus on poor regions like Pacitan and Trenggalek.(09)