Crisis forces many to beg on the streets

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.