Domestic helpers: Maids to order?
Domestic helpers: Maids to order?
Slavery was abolished years ago, but the plight of some
housemaids today shows that inhumane attitudes never die. The
recent self-immolation by a housemaid who endured ill-treatment
from her employers in Jakarta has brought attention once again to
the problem of domestic helpers denied their basic rights. The
Jakarta Post reporters Ida Indawati Khouw and Maria
Endah Hulupi take a look at the lives of domestic helpers.
JAKARTA (JP): When broken down to an hourly rate, housemaid
"Iyun" earns from Rp 300 to Rp 500 per hour.
The 30 year old works for a merchandise supplier at a housing
complex in Bekasi, east of Jakarta.
Her workday starts at 4 a.m. and sometimes last until 2 a.m.
the following morning. She does not only have to do household
chores in the seven-bedroom, two-story home, but also must help
with the family's business.
"The really long working hours usually occur when I must help
my boss prepare the merchandise -- like cosmetics and clothes --
including wrapping them and putting on the price tags before they
go to market," Iyun said hesitantly in a telephone interview. She
was too afraid to leave the house in case her employer found out.
"The earliest I get to bed is 10 p.m."
The widow from Sukabumi, West Java, has never thought that the
additional work she does should be reflected in her monthly Rp
250,000 wage.
At the end of her day, she retires to a 12-square-meter room
which she shares with her daughter, 11, who also works in the
house, though Iyun has "never had the courage" to ask that her
daughter be paid for her work.
"I usually sleep on the floor because there's only one
mattress and that is used by my daughter," she said. "Thank God
that I never have had a serious illness."
Iyun's story is true of many domestic helpers in the capital
and around Indonesia. Although they may not have to endure the
terrible abuse of Jumiati, who lies in a hospital bed with self-
inflicted burns after she could no longer take the blows of her
employers in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, they often have no
legal protection, no clearly defined working hours, low wages and
poor nutrition and health care.
A 1999 survey by the Yogyakarta-based Tjoet Nyak Dien
Association, which focuses on women's rights advocacy, of 150
housemaids in Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Surabaya showed that on
average housemaids worked for seven to nine hours per day, but
some worked for 10 hours or more per day.
Their average income in Surabaya was Rp 175,150, Jakarta Rp
115,600 and in Yogyakarta Rp 86,400. Only 42 percent of those
surveyed were elementary school graduates.
A full 60 percent of housemaids reported experiencing verbal
abuse and 15 percent of them physical abuse.
An expert on social psychology at the University of Indonesia,
Dradjat S. Soemantri, said the situation was rooted in the
tradition that working as a housemaid was considered a matter of
devotion, like servants of the past, and that the housemaids were
considered "family members".
"The condition has now changed in that the era demands more
professionalism, thus housemaids now are really searching for
jobs, not to devote themselves. The abuse occurs because
employers still want to preserve the old tradition, and also
because life in big cities conditions people to be suspicious and
prejudiced," Dradjat said.
Single working woman Elizabeth said she wanted to provide jobs
for the "unskilled" even though she could take care of the work
around her home herself.
"I have a kind middle-aged servant, whom I treat like my own
relative. She helps me with cooking and other nonstrenuous
chores," Elizabeth said.
"I help finance one of her children's education in her
hometown of Cilacap and encourage her to save some money from her
Rp 200,000 monthly salary."
Ignoring rights
Non-governmental organization activists consider the argument
that domestic helpers are "family" to be merely a patronizing
excuse to deny the workers their basic rights, such as proper
wages, working hours and holidays.
"Indonesia still perpetuates feudalism under the structure of
capitalism, in which the poor belong to the lower class of
society. In this situation, the relationship between housemaids
and employers is not a professional one but tends to become
something like slavery," said Hening Tyas Sutji from Gema
Perempuan, an organization that campaigns for housemaids' rights.
Hening said there was no appreciation for the profession
because household chores were considered menial and unskilled
labor.
"Their fate relies more on the kindness of the employers.
Moreover, as the relationship is regarded as an emotional one
regulations are consequently considered unnecessary," she said.
Gema Perempuan, along with other NGOs focusing on women's
issues, is now trying to draft a new bylaw on housemaids to
regulate their working hours and standard wages, protect their
right to organize and ensure their other basic rights as human
beings.
The 1993 bylaw on housemaids currently in effect is considered
to be focused on the responsibilities of housemaid placement
agencies, and does not cover the rights of housemaids in the
workplace.
"We realize that the struggle will take a very long time,"
Hening said.