Targeting imbalance
Targeting imbalance
In one tsunami-devastated area of Aceh, a visitor asked a medical
team, "Where are the midwives?" There were none, while only a few
weeks after last December's tragedy, an official with the United
Nations Population Fund revealed that at least 800 births were at
risk. Many of the midwives had of course become victims
themselves and apparently no one had told the volunteers of the
possibility of a woman approaching her time of labor.
This was an area of unprecedented disaster. But whether in
Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam or other relatively safer areas, on
every national commemoration of Women's Day we are reminded of
the huge task ahead of us when it comes to proving that we care
for all humans, men and women.
Our maternal mortality rate is still 380 women for every
100,000 live births, mainly due to late access to urgent services
needed at time of labor. And compared to the year 2000 when we
had barely 63,000 midwives across the nation, or 71 for every
100,000 women of reproductive age, the figure has now dropped to
about half that to just under 40,000.
Meanwhile, in Indonesia the number of people living on less
than a dollar a day has been estimated at 62 million people.
In such a situation how could the country even begin the task
of achieving "the Millenium Development Goals" to, for example,
halve the number of those living on less than a dollar a day, or
reduce by three quarters the number of women dying in the
seemingly mundane act of giving birth, all in the next 10 years?
Apart from "expecting 71 midwives to work day and night", last
year's budget at regional levels showed that "regents don't want
to pay for midwives" to replace those who have sought work in
better paying areas, said Meiwita Budiharsana, an expert in
reproductive health. Further, latest official figures put the
number of illiterate women over 15-years-old at 45 percent,
almost double the figure for men at 23 percent.
To overcome this clear neglect of women one would expect a
higher commitment from the government. But with less than 10
percent alloted for education and under 7 percent for health in
next year's budget, juggling available funds to reduce
discrimination 60 years after independence would be a tall order.
Yet there is a great opportunity in this era of regional
autonomy to employ ingenious ways to use what is at hand for
those in need. Education in the poor Jembrana regency in Bali,
for instance, is free; thus parents need not make the traditional
decision to put aside precious funds only for their son's
schooling. In the absence of commands from Jakarta and with all
the campaigns for good governance and "gender sensitivity", the
excuse this time to neglect women's needs would likely be
ignorance or greedy willfulness to use and abuse resources.
So who would be in the best position to argue for better
allocation of resources? The few figures cited above provide a
clue as to the sheer neglect of half of our human population --
thus we naturally support those advocating for more women in
decision-making positions.
We could take inspiration from Papua, a province many think of
as "backward". While its regional legislatures are 90 percent
men, the new Papuan People's Council (MRP) has 15 women out of 42
members -- or more than the 30 percent share campaigned for by
advocates of affirmative action.
It's just about making possible realistic ways to prevent the
likely waste in terms of futile policies and budget
misallocations that result from listening to the wrong people:
Put women in strategic positions, in addition to educating both
women and men about existing differences in society.
In Aceh, the government and scores of local and foreign Good
Samaritans are learning the hard way about preventing the waste
of the generous aid that has come from across the globe. Let's
not wait for another tragedy of last year's horrific proportions
merely to learn how to best use available resources, especially
when they are so scarce.