Tembok Bolong: Portrait of urban poverty

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Sadum, a semi-employed 55-year-old man, lives with his wife and five children in his five meter by seven meter semi-permanent home on disputed land on the Tembok Bolong coast, Penjaringan district, North Jakarta.

To support his family, he works as a porter at Sunda Kelapa port, one kilometer from his house. If he is lucky he can earn up to Rp 20,000 per day, but sometimes he earns nothing.

"I was forced to live here after my small business in Pasar Ikan went bankrupt two years ago. Now I work as a porter with an uncertain income," Sadum told The Jakarta Post here on Sunday.

Sadum's family is just one of 370 low-income families living illegally in the slum area. Most of the people work as small vendors, porters, drivers of Becak (three-wheeled pedicabs), fishermen or run other businesses in the informal sector.

On Sunday, about 50 delegates from the Asian People's Dialog II, running in Jakarta from Saturday to Thursday, visited the slum area.

Sadum said he has eight children. Three of them have been married and now live separately from him. But with his current income, it is difficult for him to buy daily necessities for his seven family members.

Two of his children who live with him are still in elementary school, two have completed elementary school, while his youngest child is a three-year old boy.

"I never dreamed of sending my children to junior high schools. I cannot afford it. Even to meet our current expenses I have to work very hard," said Sadum.

Sadum said every month he had to pay Rp 17,000 for the two children's school fees alone. That did not include transportation costs and their pocket money.

He also has to spend Rp 2,000 to buy as many as 25-liter jerrican of clean water as he cannot use the salty ground water for the daily needs of the family, including cooking and washing dishes and clothes.

"I have to buy water from people whose houses are linked to the clean water network. There are people who sell it door to door, but the price is far more expensive," said Sadum, who left his hometown in Brebes, Central Java, in the 1960s.

Sadum's statement was confirmed by Sarya, 51, who has been living in the area for four years. The vendor of mung bean porridge said the six jerricans of water needed for his family of four children each day cost Rp 2,200 from door-to-door vendors.

"We cannot use the ground water here, even for washing our clothes as it is very salty," Sarya told the Post, adding that he earned between Rp 15,000 and Rp 20,000 per day selling porridge.

People in this area not only face difficulties just supporting their families, but also face possible evictions. Being illegal residents, they can be evicted from their homes at any time.

"We have been threatened several times with evictions, but luckily we're still here. But I don't know for how long.

"We hope that we will not be disturbed again," said Sadum, who said that he could buy the land for Rp 1,000,000 from a woman known as Ida, though there would be no supporting documents.