Poverty on the increase in resource-rich E. Kalimantan

Rusman The Jakarta Post/Samarinda

It was 4:30 in the morning and the sun was not yet shining, but 13-year-old Rizki Gunawan and his little sister Astari had to leave the warmth of their beds and head to the main intersection in Samarinda city, East Kalimantan to sell newspapers

"We're used to waking up very early now. We just eat while selling newspapers," said six-year-old Astari, who only has one worn out teeshirt and a pair of short pants.

On one particular morning, the faces of the two children looked fresh, although they had almost no chance to take a bath. Still, once in a while they'd yawn, as if they were missing the comfort of their beds.

At the Kusuma Bangsa intersection, two kilometers from their home, the children sell newspapers to passing motorists.

By noon, when they are usually very hungry, they buy lunch from nearby food stall.

"We split one pack of rice," Rizki said. "We only eat once, while selling the papers. We rarely eat again at home because our mother does not cook for us very often."

After leaving their house at dawn, the siblings return home at 3:15 p.m. in a van provided by one of the papers that they sell.

While lots of children his age go to school, Rizki is on the street in the hot sun or rain seven days a week hawking papers while dodging the traffic.

From selling the papers, Rizki earns up to Rp 15,000 (US$1.6) daily, a decent amount for kid his age. He uses the money to pay for his daily needs and save a little as well as to help his mother. His sister usually follows him around.

"I'd go to school if I had enough money. But I don't so I sell newspapers," said the fourth of seven children, who dropped out during his first year of junior high school.

The children live in a simple 30-square-meter wooden shack belonging to a relative. The are no chairs or a television, only a small cabinet and a plastic mat.

Rizki's mother, 41-year-old Sumarni, earns what she can selling salted fish in Sungai Dama market, usually between Rp 10,000 and Rp 25,000 a day. Her husband, 41-year-old Asmuran, only returns home once a week from his workplace at a shrimp pond outside of town.

Rizki is not the only child in the family who dropped out of school. His siblings also quit school because their parents were not willing to pay the education fees.

In order to attend elementary school, for instance, parents need at least Rp 2.5 million just for the "admission fee", then there are many more direct and indirect costs.

"If we want to send children to high school, we have to have at least Rp 5 million up front. That's a lot of money," explained Sumarni.

She still hopes to be able to send Astari to school next year. She will leave the decision to Rizki on whether he wants to go to school or not.

"Our family usually is able to get enough to eat, but education is a luxury that there is no way we can afford," Sumarni lamented.

Rizki's family is not the only impoverished family in the resource-rich capital city of East Kalimantan province.

According to 2004 data from Central Bureau of Statistics, 328,597 out of the city's 2.7 million people were living below the poverty line.

The figure was nearly a 6 percent jump over the 2002 figure with 313,040 poor people. Last year, the number of poor people in the city rose again to 330,147.

When the country was devastated by the economic crisis in 1998, the number of poor people in Samarinda was at its worst, statistically speaking, that is. The BPS recorded 779,415 out of the city's 1.8 million residents.

High poverty rates are also found in the province's 13 regencies and municipalities, with the highest level recorded, amazingly enough, in the very wealthy Kutai Kartanegara regency with 69,109 people in 2002 and 75,404 people in 2003 from the regency's 480,499 residents.

Samarinda city is the second highest with 46,906 people in 2002 and 48,137 people in 2004 from the city's 561,471 residents.

Poverty has also caused a drastic increase in the number of neglected children under the age of five.

In 2002, East Kalimantan's Social Affairs Office recorded 27,432 children were neglected out of 259,256 children in 2002 and some 22,161 children in 2003.

The high number of poor people is all the more deplorable considering the significant increase in the province's overall economic numbers, which stood at Rp 98.43 trillion in 2003 and rose to Rp 104.4 trillion in 2004.

The province is rich in natural resources with coal production recorded at over 50 million tons in 2003, 14.40 tons of gold, 10.66 tons of silver, 1.647 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 79.7 million barrels of oil.

Head of East Kalimantan's Social Affairs Office, Syahril Basran, blamed the high number of poor people on the increasing number of newcomers wanting to earn a better living in the province.

"Unfortunately, many newcomers have no jobs or decent houses, so we'll see many children working as beggars in many intersections," he downplayed.

He added that the governor had instructed the regency and municipal administrations to cleanse the streets of the all children.

In dealing with poverty, the provincial administration claims it has provided subsidies amounting to Rp 9 billion for food and housing for the impoverished.