Wanakerta women fluff their way for a living
Wanakerta women fluff their way for a living
By Agus Maryono and Ngudi Utomo
PURBALINGGA, Central Java (JP): The woman and her two teenage
children could not stop sneezing as heaps of kapok floated in the
air around them. Even the afternoon downpour did not dampen their
working spirit. With the silky fibers of kapok flying all around
them and settling onto their bodies, they kept stuffing kapok
into a large cloth bag to make a mattress.
Rasni, 40, is one of the women working in a mattress-making
center in Wanakerta hamlet in Banjarkerta village of Purbalingga
district. Almost all of the women in Wanakerta, which has a
population of some 350 families or about 1,200 people, work as
mattress-makers. Usually they get help from their children. When
the mattresses are ready, it is the men's job to sell them in
other towns. They may be away for weeks selling mattresses.
Before the crisis began in July last year, they made good
money. As evidence of this success, many houses in this hamlet
have ceramic floors and are equipped with expensive electronic
gadgets. Now business is sluggish. Some people have given up the
business and turned their hand to selling spring beds, which they
usually buy in Tegal, Central Java. Some try their luck at
finding work in nearby towns, while others remain in the business
because they have no other alternative to earn a living.
"What else can I do for a living? Those working in the city
have now returned to their village," Rasni told The Jakarta Post.
Since 1978, Wanakerta residents have been making mattresses in
a very traditional way. To make one mattress they need stuffing,
mattress cloth and thread. There are two kinds of stuffing with
which they are familiar: kapok and a fibrous yarn called benglon
which is made from textile factory waste. The products have a
good market not only in Purbalingga but also in other urban
centers like Surakarta, Tasikmalaya and Jakarta.
The mattress-making business in Wanakerta was pioneered by
Mahwari, 50, and the late Rasmadi. Before trying their hand at
mattress-making, they sold agricultural products in a number of
areas in Java. When they were at a textile mill in Bandung, West
Java, they saw heaps of textile waste, the kapok-like polyester
benglon fibers.
"It struck me that these fibers could be utilized to make a
mattress," said Mahwari.
Back home, he and his wife used the benglon he bought in
Bandung to make a mattress. "I bought 200 kilos of benglon just
to experiment in making mattresses. A kilo cost Rp 300," said
Mahwari. First he found buyers for his mattresses among his
neighbors, but then orders started coming in from people in other
areas. His success prompted his neighbors to follow his example.
Now Mahwari supplies benglon to all mattress-makers in his
hamlet. "I am not strong enough to sell mattresses and at the
same time supply the raw materials."
The process of making a mattress in a traditional way is
simple. "Before it is put into a cloth bag, the kapok or benglon
must first be put in the sunlight so that it will expand," said
Rasni.
Then it is put into a cloth bag the size of a mattress. The
bag is sewn up with mattress thread.
"When the mattress is ready, it will be again put in the
sunlight so that it will expand further," she added.
Because of the crisis, the prices of all raw materials have
increased by over 100 percent.
"Before the crisis, one piece of mattress cloth (35 meters)
cost Rp 35,000 but now it costs Rp 100,000," said Nuryadi, 44,
another mattress-maker.
The price of thread has also gone up from Rp 500 per roll the
size of a tennis ball to Rp 1,500. Kapok has increased in price
from Rp 40,000/100 kg to Rp 70,000/100 kg while benglon has risen
in price from Rp 50,000/100 kg to Rp 200,000/100 kg.
To make a single mattress, nine meters of mattress cloth is
needed, 20 kg of kapok or 25 kg of benglon and two rolls of
thread. One mattress sells at an average price of Rp 90,000.
"The net profit from one mattress is only Rp 5,000," said
Nuryadi.
He makes only an average of 10 mattresses a day now compared
to 30 mattresses a day before the crisis.
He has also had to reduce his employees from 15 to five
because he cannot afford to pay them.
Respiratory
The employees are paid according to how much work they do. For
stuffing a mattress, one gets Rp 1,000 per mattress, someone who
does the sewing also earns Rp 1,000 per mattress, according to
Rasni.
"Not bad. I can buy ingredients for meals," said Sikas, 15, an
elementary school dropout working for Rasni. She stuffs mattress
bags and can make 10 mattresses a day. "If you do the sewing you
can sew 15 mattresses a day," she said.
Respiratory
The mattress-makers handle heaps of kapok and benglon every
day and do not wear protective masks, leaving them vulnerable to
health problems. The biggest risk they run is when they unpack
the stuffing, put it in the sunlight and fill the mattress bags.
"We are used to this condition," said Rasni, who has stuffed
mattresses for over 10 years.
"We'll be all right, even without protective masks. The worst
thing that can happen to us that we could get a cough," she said,
without the slightest idea that a cough could be a symptom of
respiratory trouble.
"Sometimes we see a doctor at the community health center
because we cough too often. Is this because of kapok?" she
inquired.
Rasni and other mattress-makers do not realize that their
coughs are caused by pollution. Every day, for hours on end, they
inhale air mixed with fiber particles and kapok.
"Now, if I don't put on a mask to cover my nose, I often
sneeze and cough," said Wasirah, 47, another worker.
An interesting feature to observe among the lives of mattress-
makers in Wanakerta is that the hamlet is dubbed a hamlet of
seasonal widows. Why? Often about 80 percent of the population in
Wanakerta is made up only of women because the men are frequently
away for a month or two to sell the mattresses.
"Our husbands are often away for a long time. Anyway, we are
used to this condition and we have a lot of friends," said
Darsinah, 30, a mother of two. Her husband has been in
Tasikmalaya for two months.