Poor students work as maids, miss families over holidays

Poor students work as maids, miss families over holidays

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

While many people are leaving the city to join the annual Idul
Fitri exodus, Ratmi, a 23-year-old student from Pacitan, Central
Java, is here to work as a domestic for a middle-upper income
Jakarta family.

Ratmi is a final-year student in the Pacitan campus of the
Muhammadiyah University of Surabaya, who is majoring in Islamic
education.

This year is her third time to celebrate Idul Fitri far away
from her family as a result of her decision to take a job as a
substitute domestic.

"I need the money to help my parents and to support my two
siblings. And the money is more than enough to pay my tuition
fees. The job is good and decent ... I'm not ashamed of it," she
told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

At least 100 women, many of them high school and college
students, from Pacitan, Central Java, have come to Jakarta to
work as domestic helpers just for about a month. They are
initially accommodated by the Jasa Abadi Foundation, which
supplies nannies and housemaids.

"They come here as many of villagers are in dire need of money
because of this year's harvest failure due to the long dry
season," Tien A.R., chairwoman of the foundation, who also comes
from Pacitan, told the Post at her offices in Cipulir, South
Jakarta.

As of Monday, all of the women had been picked up by their new
employers.

There is always a high demand for domestic helpers around Idul
Fitri when many return to their home villages to celebrate the
holidays.

Nurul, another villager here to work as a substitute
housemaid, said that not being with her family for the country's
most popular holiday was unavoidable because there would not be
another chance for the rest of the year to get a simple job with
a good salary.

"Physically and mentally, I'm ready to do the housework
chores. Besides, my employers for the last two years have been
nice people. The only hard thing for me is when I have to stay in
the house all by myself," she complained.

Each of the temporary housemaids, Tien said, were paid Rp
50,000 (around US$5.6) per day. The wage for 20 days was much
higher than the normal salary for domestics, who were usually
paid between Rp 200,000 and Rp 250,000 a month.

For a temporary nanny, the wage was between Rp 60,000 and Rp
80,000 per day.

The foundation charges the would-be employer between Rp
200,000 and Rp 250,000 in administration fees.

In Jakarta alone, there are 27 similar foundations that serve
as agents for domestics and baby-sitters.

Ledy, a resident of the Bintaro area in Tangerang, collected
her domestic on Friday from the Kasih Ibu Foundation on Jl.
Mampang Prapatan in South Jakarta. She was required to pay Rp
300,000 for the housemaid's 10 days of work and another Rp
250,000 for the administration fee.

She told the Post that she had hired the substitute domestic
as both her three-year-old child's nannie and her regular
domestic had left for their hometowns.

"I cannot look after my child and the house at the same time.
I need a helper to cook, to wash the clothes and to keep the
house tidy," she said.

But she did not hire a substitute nanny. "It would be a waste
of money because my child probably wouldn't feel comfortable with
the new nanny."