Crisis prompts prostitution explosion
Crisis prompts prostitution explosion
Suffering from the closure of many factories and businesses, indications have shown the entrance of numerous newcomers into the sex industry. But competition is tight. Jumping on the reform bandwagon, more public pressure is being aimed at cleansing the country of prostitution -- while men are buying sex at lower rates. The Jakarta Post reporters Imanuddin, Ivy Susanti, K. Basrie, Riyadi, Yogita Tahil Ramani, photographer Bayu Ismoyo and correspondents in Medan, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Surabaya and Ujungpandang took to the streets concerning the issue.
JAKARTA (JP): "Sshh, my real name is not Tati. I'm here because the garment home industry in Kemanggisan (West Jakarta) went bankrupt three months ago."
"Why am I here? It's simple. I need money for my 7-year-old son and my parents," 32-year-old Larasati, also not her real name, whispered to The Jakarta Post at her new workplace: a massage parlor not far from the garment factory.
Like many masseuses, Larasati offers "extra services" to clients at the negotiable price of Rp 50,000 (US$3.60).
Without the sex service, "I would only earn half of the Rp 10,000 hourly massage fee, while it's really exhausting," she confided.
Working from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Larasati earns at least Rp 200,000 per week, equal to a month's salary at her previous job.
"But I still worry that my relatives or friends might find me here," Larasati admitted.
Uncertainties over the country's security and future, which has brought the rupiah to its knees and made businesspeople flee the country, has also badly affected the sex business.
The May riots made things worse. A number of brothels and red- light districts were looted and set on fire by mobs, who named themselves reformists or moralists.
A renovated hotel in Tangerang was no longer allowed to operate, after its management had spent a lot of money to rebuild it. The hotel had been badly burned in the May riots' mayhem.
Some panderers in Java and Sumatra have closed their businesses and let their women leave to find their own way.
Newcomers to the business, including those from villages, have joined their sisters on the streets, in brothels, hotels, discos, karaoke halls, malls, railway tracks and even cemeteries.
The Yogyakarta-based Indonesian Free Children Society says Indonesia is now home to at least 650,000 prostitutes, including 150,000 registered sex workers.
"About 30 percent of this are children," foundation director Mohammad Farid said Wednesday during a discussion in Surakarta.
By comparison, there were 72,000 registered prostitutes in 1995.
But many doubt these figures, estimating that the number has skyrocketed this year.
Firman Lubis, chairman of Kusuma Buana, a foundation focusing on health, said: "I reckon up to 10 women come from the villages each day. I guess there are more than a 100 newcomers a month."
Bulungan
In Jakarta, streetwalkers have been seen in areas which have not been known as red-light districts.
Waiting behind or near dimly lit trees, bus stops, newspaper stands or small sidewalk shops, the prostitutes -- from teenagers to those in their 30s -- are noticeable in their attractive outfits and roaming eyes.
In the Bulungan area, close to the popular Blok M shopping center, a group of teenage-looking girls can be found gathered around cigarette kiosks.
Hendra, owner of one of the kiosks, said the girls at his kiosk "could be taken out", but "you need a little bit of spirit to deal with them because some of the girls here are quite choosy."
He said most Bulungan girls were easy-going, "especially during this crisis, when orders are decreasing".
Prices vary. A Bulungan prostitute, for instance, would agree to a price of Rp 100,000 or Rp 200,000 for a "short time".
"Ade", 21, who frequents a famous discotheque in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, charges US$100 for a short time (no less than one hour). "Otherwise, the bule (foreigners) would find Indonesian girls as cheap as peanuts," said slim-built Ade.
Prostitutes at hotels, and parlors fronting as karaoke bars and night clubs, have also hiked their prices in a bid to compete with the rising rate of the greenback against the rupiah.
A hotel in the Blok M area, South Jakarta, for instance, has doubled is rent to Rp 225,000 for short time.
Ade claims she could still get at least four clients, mostly foreigners, per week.
Lower-class street prostitutes have to compete harder. Having to face the cold midnight wind and the police, they said they only earned between Rp 5,000 and Rp 50,000 per night, at most.
Experts, including sociologists, fear a rise in sexually transmitted diseases, such as HIV, syphilis and gonorrhea, with the expected increase of prostitutes. They said the prostitutes would not likely insist on the use of condoms during such a competitive time.
Public health expert Soebowo, from Diponegoro University, Semarang, said more and more young people would suffer from sexually transmitted diseases, especially with the increase of prostitutes.
Streetwalking is prohibited under numerous city bylaws but there is no law in Indonesia that prohibits the sale of sexual services.
The criminal law only prosecutes those who facilitate illegal activities as defined in the Criminal Code. Article 296 states that those whose actions or attitudes intentionally lead to or facilitate illegal sexual activities with other people will be jailed for one year and four months or fined Rp 15,000.
Article 297 states that trade in women or in minors will incur a maximum penalty of six years imprisonment, whereas article 506 states that a panderer, deriving profit from the prostitution of women, will be jailed for three months.
Sociologists have urged the government many times to control the spread of prostitution as soon as possible, before conditions become worse.
Firman Lubis said: "We are dealing with a very basic problem, the economy. Most of us reject prostitution. But to close down brothels would not wipe out the business."
The situation has already become a dilemma for both the public and the sex workers.
A classic song by veteran composer/singer Titiek Puspa may express the most fitting description of prostitutes, who locals also call kupu-kupu malam (night butterflies).
Part of the song Kupu-Kupu Malam goes: "There are those who hate her, there are those who need her, there are also those who kneel begging her, and those who cruelly torment her.
"Let things happen, what she knows is that God loves His followers, what she knows is that she keeps her soul alive." (team)