Crisis means tight competition for rice scavengers

Crisis means tight competition for rice scavengers

By Agus Martono

PURWOKERTO, Banyumas (JP): Sweat pours down the wrinkled face
of the 72-year-old Wasem. Despite the heat of the noonday sun on
the paddy field, she persists in sorting the leftover dried rice
stalks from a recent harvest. She continues working with her own
hand-made tools, making sure that there is not a single grain of
rice, that could be collected from the stalks, remaining.

Every once in a while, she wipes the sweat off her brow and
looks over at the rice grains that she has managed to collect in
her sack. Then she reaches for an Aqua bottle filled with tea and
slowly sips it, relishing every drop, then she squats, returning
to her tiresome task.

Wasem is one of the so-called buruh granting from a number of
villages in the region of Banyumas and Cilacap, Central Java, who
scrutinize leftover dried rice stalks to collect as many grains
of rice as possible after a harvest. The number of these workers
at the recent harvest season has multiplied. From the thousands
of buruh granting in the area, 90 percent of them are old women
like Wasem.

Before the economic crisis struck, buruh granting already
existed. It was a job for those whose daily earnings did not meet
their needs. The economic turmoil enveloping the country has
caused their numbers to increase dramatically.

"Then, there were only a few people who would want to do this
job. But now, the number is increasing," Wasem told The Jakarta
Post, while working on a paddy field in the village of
Karangnanas, Sokaraja district, Banyumas.

There is no other object that they are after but rice grains,
which have suddenly became a rare commodity.

"What other work is there available? We can not afford to buy
the rice. My children need food. I do this because I have to. I
don't have any other options to survive," Gureng, a 60-year-old
woman, said.

There are at least 50 people like Wasem and Gureng who collect
rice grains on each paddy field.

The dramatic increase in the number of workers has
unfortunately also influenced the amount of rice that they are
able to collect. Before the economic crisis, they were able to
collect up to 20 kilograms of gabah (unhulled rice separated from
the stalk). Now, to merely attain 5 kg, these laborers have to
compete for it. Quiet quarrels often erupt between them, causing
a breakdown in what used to be a close relationship.

Usually, these laborers go in groups to look for suitable
areas where they can start their work. To look for these areas,
they often have to walk long distances, leaving their homes
before the sun rises and returning just as the sun sets. They are
easy to recognize, wearing caping (traditional bamboo hats) and
carrying a rinjing (a sort of sack made from woven bamboo shoots)
on their back. Inside these bags is a hand-made tool, a board
measuring 30 x 30 centimeters which has a nailed in steel chain
on one side.

The small amount attainable due to the vast numbers of
granting labors is also felt by Wasem. The old woman, who has
been doing the work since the 1980s, admits that she can not do
much due to the fierce competition.

"I used to be able to bring home 20 kg of rice. Now, to be
able to collect 5 kg, I have to really fight for it," she said.
"I do not know if this is also due to the crisis ", she added
plaintively. With a handful of stalks which she continues to
"scrub", Wasem added that this recent harvest was not as
satisfying for her as it was two or three years ago.

Wasem puts together the grains she has collected over the last
five days and then dries them under sun. It is already a
tradition in the community that when the rice grains are dry,
they are crushed using traditional tools, the alu (rice stammer)
and lesung (rice mortar). According to Wasem, after crushing,
only 10 kg to 12 kg will be become rice as we know it.

There is an interesting phenomenon that arises behind the
increasing number of laborers. In Doplang village, Adipala
district, in the Cilacap region, quite a number of the laborers
try to cheat the paddy field owners. In carrying out their
activities, the women cooperate with their husbands, who work in
the fields collecting the harvest. "This is how they do it, the
husband and his wife work together side by side. When the rice
grains haven't really be scrubbed off the rice stalks, the
husband has already given them to his wife. It is obvious that
this way the wife will be able to collect more," said Mudiharjo,
a 50-year-old paddy field owner in Sikampuh village, Kroya
district, Cilacap.

"We don't know how to resolve this problem, if we don't allow
them, they will say that we are greedy. On the other hand if this
keeps going on, we will be the ones who have to suffer the loss,"
Mudiharjo said. "The best compromise is for us to keep an eye on
our workers. If I sense something wrong, especially when their
wives or relatives are also there, I warn them," he added.

Another thing that is most unwelcome to the paddy field owners
is the occurrence of theft by the women who collect the grains
after the harvest. Even though there are not many who attempt
this, it is still a big loss. "Often our dried rice stalks
disappear, perhaps this does not happen much, but if it persists,
I won't have any left," says a field owner who is sure that his
stocks were stolen by the laborers.