Jakarta no haven for migrant workers

By Stevie Emilia

JAKARTA (JP): Glittering skyscrapers, fancy cars and luxurious malls full of shoppers might confirm Jakarta's status as a cosmopolitan city.

The bright lights have lured many people from various parts of the country to seek a better life here. Some of the migrants find jobs -- mostly in the informal sector, but others end up living far below the poverty line and become a serious burden to the city. Many of them live dangerously near railway tracks or in shacks along the riverbanks. Those who are unemployed become beggars, or even worse, criminals.

Sarweni and Suyono are among those who have to experience this bitter life.

Sarweni, who moved to the city 16 years ago from her hometown of Ciledug, West Java, right after her marriage to Suyono, an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver, now has let go of her dreams. Her thin face and shabby appearance reflect what she has been through.

"Of course everyone wants to live comfortably, but we don't dare to have such a dream...," the 33-year-old woman, mother of six children, told The Jakarta Post in her modest living room, furnished only with a hand-made bench. Her husband, sitting next to her, nodded.

She is an elementary school graduate, while her husband has a senior high school certificate.

Her husband's income from working as an ojek driver is only enough for the family's daily meals.

When he is lucky, he may earn up to Rp 15,000 a day. But these days, he only brings home about Rp 5,000.

"During the rainy days such as now, it's difficult to earn much money...," said the 41-year-old Suyono while trying to calm down his children playing on the living room's rough and dusty floor.

The family's house is a two-story semi-permanent shack located in a small alley in the Pademangan Timur area, five minutes away from Ancol in North Jakarta. The shack was built piece by piece by Suyono over 10 years ago, when the area was not as crowded as now.

Now, the 12 meter-square shack is no longer adequate for the entire family.

Sarweni said that during the rainy season, the wooden shack is usually inundated by floods and the second floor, where the whole family sleep at night, is wet as its walls and roof, made out of corrugated iron, cannot stop the rain from dripping in.

The family, however, is already used to floods, which also wash in garbage piling up by the nearby railway tracks. In fact, even when there is no flooding, the wretched odor of garbage already pervades the shack.

Loud noise from the passing trains has also become a part of the family's daily "music."

But it is fire that the family is afraid of most. "Once, a fire had already gutted the nearest houses in our neighborhood... I was so scared," said Sarweni, referring to the many fire- related accidents happening in her area.

The crisis which has undermined the country's economy has also caused a stunning increase in the number of poor families in Jakarta.

According to the city office of the National Family Planning Board survey in October, the number of Jakarta families living below the poverty line was "only" 57,218, double the July figure of 23,384 families. One third of them, or 16,937 families, lived in West Jakarta, 13,355 in East Jakarta, 12,096 in Central Jakarta, 7,603 in North Jakarta and the remaining 7,227 families in South Jakarta. Each family in the survey represented four or five people.

The Central Bureau of Statistics categorizes those living below the poverty line as people with monthly family earnings of not more than Rp 227,720 (US$30.36).

Sarweni said that before the crisis, her husband's earnings were enough to feed the entire family and to send their older children to schools.

In the darkness of her tiny and blackened kitchen, while she cooked rice in a small steam pot, she whispered that there were times when she and her husband only ate once a day in order to provide more food for their children.

"There's no need to complain. I just accept the situation," Sarweni said. Her menu for the day was two packs of instant noodles.

The smell of rubbish mixed with the odor coming out of the family's bathroom -- located right in front of the kitchen -- might ruin one's appetite. But not for this family, as it has become part of their daily routine.

The crisis also forced Sarweni to send the fourth child to her relatives in her hometown. "We can't afford his education any more," Sarweni said.

Their first three children are going to school. Two of them, who are in junior high school, are freed from paying tuition fees. The third one goes to an elementary school.

"The three of them can still go to school ... but I'm not sure for how long. If this situation goes on, I'm afraid they won't finish their studies because I'll have to send them back home too," Suyono said.

He said that he thought the situation was better before former president Soeharto stepped down in May last year. "I earlier thought that food prices would decline, but I'm wrong, and life is getting harder," said Suyono, who is a native of Surakarta, Central Java.

He said that he has tried many things to improve the family's economic condition, including trading. "But none of them worked very well... so I returned to my job as an ojek driver," he said, wiping sweat from his forehead.

And the crisis was also blamed for their inability to continue medication for their youngest son, the two-year-old Mansyur, who has a problem with his lungs.

At the time when most children of his age can already walk and talk, Mansyur can do neither, not even muttering the word "Mom" to his mother.

"With the crisis medication costs are getting higher and we cannot afford it any more... you know, we have to prioritize food," Suyono said slowly.

The family's only hope of escaping from the misery of living in poverty might take one by surprise: land appropriation.

Unlike many other people who might fight for their land until the last drop of their blood, both Sarweni and Suyono are ready to give theirs up. They are waiting for any project to take over their house so that they can get compensation.

".. then, with the compensation we receive, we will have money either to get a better house or even to go back to our hometown," said Suyono.

But they will have to wait a long time as the crisis has put a stop to many projects.