Jakarta no haven for migrant workers

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.