Crisis forces many to beg on the streets

By Brigid O'Halloran and Ahmad Junaidi

JAKARTA (JP): In the shadow of the Kebayoran Lama overpass in South Jakarta, six-year-old Kukur zigzags through the traffic, rattling bottletops nailed to a piece of wood and singing a hackneyed tune.

His face is expressionless, his movements weary. After three months working on the streets, he is adept at recognizing those motorists more likely to toss him a coin or a morsel of food. He peers into each vehicle and, if the occupant does not respond, puts a hand to his mouth in a gesture conveying hunger.

It is a common scene on the streets of Jakarta and many other Indonesian cities today. As the unemployment rate rises and the price of basic commodities soars, more and more people are taking to the streets to beg. During a crackdown on beggars earlier this year, the authorities apprehended over 3,500 beggars, compared to 2,700 in 1997.

Kukur, his brother and older sister work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day under the watchful eye of their mother, Neneng, who sits on the curb nursing her eight-month-old son.

Each day the family travels for over an hour by bus from their home in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, to avoid the prospect of being recognized and the shame of begging in their own locality.

Following the death of her husband last year, Neneng was supported by relatives, but with the rising cost of basic necessities they can no longer afford to provide for her and her family.

"It has been very difficult for us since my husband died, our rent is over Rp 50,000 per month and doesn't leave us very much money," she said.

The family manages to make about Rp 14,000 a day by begging, but with the cost of staple foods such as rice trebling in the past year, the money does not go far.

Imah, Neneng's neighbor, also travels with her two children to beg at the intersection under the Kebayoran Lama overpass. Imah said her husband was unemployed and did not provide any income for the family. She said she feared for her children, but had no choice. She sits with Neneng each day, watching her children to make sure no harm comes to them.

"I would like to work, but can't find a job," she said.

With an estimated 15,000 workers losing their jobs each day, it is little wonder that unskilled workers such as Imah are having difficulty finding employment.

Unemployment, coupled with an inflation rate that exceeded 75 percent in September, has made it extremely difficult for many people to survive.

Like Neneng and Imah, many parents have had to take their children out of school to help them earn a living or supplement the family's dwindling income.

The increasing number of children and teenagers working on the streets compelled the government to introduce a regulation in June exempting the payment of fees for students attending state schools. This seems to have had very little effect, with the number of street children apprehended by the social services office trebling in the past year.

Many longer term beggars are also finding it more and more difficult to survive on their meager incomes.

Sita Aripurnami from non-governmental organization Kalyanamitra said earlier this month that the incomes and purchasing power of many scavengers and people working on the streets had declined dramatically in the last year.

Hermono, a 37-year-old beggar who operates at the intersection of Jl. Rasuna Said and Jl. Gatot Subroto, said he was finding it increasingly difficult to support his family on his scant income.

A secondhand goods salesman by trade, Hermono lost his left arm and leg in a train accident four years ago. Wearing a battered Nike cap and cut-off jeans, Hermono said he could earn up to Rp 15,000 a day, but with rising costs he has found it hard to support his wife and four children currently living in Bogor.

Dora, a transvestite who started begging six years ago because he found he could earn more money than the Rp 20,000 a week he earned as a qualified machinist, said the past few months had been extremely difficult.

The approaching Christmas season and Ramadhan Islamic holy month are expected to bring a further influx of beggars to Jakarta from villages throughout Java.

With the economic crisis showing no signs of abating, the future of the thousands of beggars on Indonesia's city streets looks bleak.

Following the crackdown earlier this year, however, the city authorities seem to be taking a softer line with the beggars, acknowledging that many simply did not have any choice but to try to eke out an existence on the streets.