Poverty alleviation programs exclude those without IDs
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
There are many theories to explain why the government's various programs to eliminate poverty have been futile. In Jakarta, one problem is clear: Over 100,000 poor do not have ID cards, which make public services unavailable to them.
Many of the impoverished Jakartans do not have access to free health services, cannot buy cheap rice, cannot obtain soft loans or receive other aid from the government because they cannot show the card that proves that they are "legal" residents.
Head of the City Health Agency Abdul Chalik Masulili, for example, admitted on Thursday that the various health programs in the capital were only for those who had Jakarta ID cards.
"All health facilities for the poor are only for those who have the health cards (kartu sehat), while the cards can only be obtained by those who can show their city identity cards," said Chalik at a discussion on poverty elimination at a five-star hotel here.
People without ID cards are excluded from the city health programs, for other reasons as well. Chalik said that the policy was taken in order to curb the flow of migrants into the capital.
"If we give them the health cards, many more people will flock to Jakarta," he added.
Overpopulation is one of the serious problems in the capital. The city administration estimates that every year, about 250,000 people migrate to the city.
Governor Sutiyoso, who has failed to curb the influx of the impoverished masses, earlier said that he planned to make Jakarta a closed city. But the idea received strong criticism from human rights activists. In an effort to discourage unskilled people from entering the city, the administration periodically launches controversial door-to-door raids to arrest people who fail to show their city ID cards or other documents.
In Thursday's seminar, Jakarta Statistics Office presented its results from 2000 which found that the total population in the capital was 8.38 million or some 2.23 million families. While the total of absolute poor was some 340,000 people. It also revealed that 32,983 poor families or over 100,000 people did not have identity cards.
Other data presented by the National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN) showed that early this year, the number of poor families, which it divided into three levels, reached 360,641, more than one million individuals.
There are many government programs to combat poverty and to improve the welfare of the poor, including the social safety net (JPS), which is applied nationwide. Jakarta also has the Subdistrict Society Empowerment Program (PPMK) and various other schemes for family business development.
Under the PPMK program, which started last year, each of the 167 subdistricts in the city received Rp 250 million (US$28,400) in soft loans, which was handled by each subdistrict council. But in some areas, the implementation of the program was reportedly marred by the practice of corruption due to the lack of transparency.
Commenting on the city's policy in dealing with the poor, M. Berkah Gamulya of the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) said that the city administration should treat everybody equal.
"It is really unfair if the poor who do not have ID cards are not helped. All those people need similar help. If the government does not give a hand, who will help them? In any city in the world, such groups of people always exist and the authority has the responsibility to help them," he told The Jakarta Post.
He said that the first thing which should be done was that the city administration had to recognize the presence of the squatters as a reality in all urban societies.
"Only after the city administration recognizes their informality, then we can talk about how to help such a group of people," Gamulya said.
"What the city authority has done so far to them is to destroy the places where they live and the places where they do business, without giving them any choice," he added, referring to the evictions conducted by the city public order officers against the poor.
Paulus Wirutomo, an urban social affairs observer from the University of Indonesia, also stressed the need for the city administration to take responsibility for the fate of all people living in the city.
Criteria of poor families: 1. Area of home is less than 8 square meters, 2. A dirt floor, 3. No access to clean water, 4. No toilet, 5. No furniture, 6. No meat, fish or eggs for one week, 7. Not able to buy new clothes for one year.
A family is categorized as poor if it meets three of the above.