Violence against women up in NTB

Violence against women up in NTB

Luh Putu Trisna Wahyuni, Mataram

The incidence of domestic and other forms of violence against
women has increased significantly in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB)
province during the past year.

More than 3,500 complaints were filed with various
institutions, including the provincial social affairs office and
nongovernmental organizations, in the period from last year to
this month, compared with only 729 cases reported in 2002.

The director of the Legal Aid Institute of Justice for
Indonesian Women (LBH-APIK) in NTB, Beauty Erawati, said the
statistics reflected a rising awareness of women of their rights.

"The significant increase in the amount of violence against
women may have resulted from a growing awareness among women of
the need to file official reports to institutions they believe
can help them," said Beauty.

Her legal institute alone received more than 1,000 reports of
violence against women in 2003, double the number that reached it
the previous year.

As of June the legal institute has handled 807 cases, mostly
domestic violence, filed by women migrant workers employed in the
Middle East. Included were some reports of rape and rights abuse.

Separately, migrant workers' advocacy group Panca Karsa
Foundation said it recorded 1,366 cases of violence against
migrant workers between 2003 and the first semester of this year.

As of June the provincial social affairs and women's
empowerment offices in NTB dealt with 688 cases of violence,
while the provincial police recorded 25 rape cases.

Beauty said the rising number of domestic violence cases was a
nationwide trend.

She said a number of NGOs and the Office of the State Minister
for Women's Empowerment had persistently urged the President to
issue a decree on national action to eradicate violence against
women.

Without the decree, no state funds would be allocated for the
national movement, she said.

LBH-APIK in NTB is handling 26 cases of violence against
female migrant workers in the first-half of 2004. Two of the
workers, from West Sumbawa and Sumbawa regencies respectively,
were killed.

Beauty said the fact that most casualties of violence against
Indonesian women migrant workers overseas were not sent home had
made it difficult for LBH-APIK to prove the violence had taken
place.

Between 1.4 million and 2.1 million Indonesian female migrant
workers currently work abroad, either legally or illegally.

Beauty said human trafficking was another crime threatening
women in NTB who wished to work overseas. The province has been
dubbed the major supplier of women migrant workers after East
Java.

So far, North Sulawesi is the only migrant worker supplying
province that has enforced a bylaw on trafficking in women.

With regard to the issue of trafficking in women and children,
Indonesia is ranked in the second tier, due to its awareness of
the issue, albeit without law enforcement to eradicate the crime.