Women's group calls for red-light district removal

Women's group calls for red-light district removal

JAKARTA (JP): Women's organizations are pressing the city
administration to move the prostitution complex from the Kramat
Tunggak area, North Jakarta.

"We want to present an official request to the House of
Representatives to move the prostitution complex to an island,"
Titing Saptadji, the chairperson of the Women's Organizations
Cooperating Body, said on Wednesday. She did not say, however,
whether new social problems could be avoided should the complex
be moved.

Titing said the removal of the red-light district would be a
step towards curbing the spread of the prostitution network in
the city, Antara reported yesterday.

"It's not possible to wipe out prostitution in the capital as
long as supply and demand remain high," Titing said while
providing guidance and counseling to prostitutes on Wednesday.

During the guidance and counseling program, the prostitutes
are taught about, among other things, running cooperatives.

The existence of the prostitution complex in Kramat Tunggak
creates an unhealthy social environment for families living close
to the complex. "For the complex's organizers and pimps who don't
want their own children drifting into the prostitution
businesses, the complex is also no good," she said.

Kramat Tunggak red-light district is the only prostitution
complex acknowledged by the city administration.

The 11.5 hectare complex was established in 1972 by the city
administration as an attempt to unite all brothels around the
city in one complex.

Kramat Tunggak prostitutes reportedly earn between Rp 25,000
to Rp 30,000 per hour.

City social affairs agency records indicate that abut 700
prostitutes leave the complex every year. The agency has ruled
that the complex can accept no more than 500 new prostitutes per
year, in an attempt to reduce prostitution.

Currently, about 1,800 prostitutes gather at the complex. The
complex has a total of 2,500 rooms.

The secretary of the Women's Organizations Cooperation Body,
Dani Soepandhi, said that efforts to rehabilitate the prostitutes
would be futile as long as large numbers of women from other
towns in Java continue to migrate to Jakarta.

"Cooperation with other women's organizations in the provinces
which send women to Jakarta is necessary. Let's be frank in
saying that most prostitutes in Kramat Tunggak hail from
Indramayu, West Java and Jepara, Central Java," Mrs. Soepandhi
said.

Meanwhile, city authorities have demolished five illegal
brothel houses in the complex.

The head of the entertainment supervision agency at the city's
public order office, Toha Reno, said yesterday that the five
houses were built without proper documents.

"The houses are not covered by the proper permits from the
North Jakarta mayoralty or the city social agency," Toha said.

"The houses must be demolished despite owners' claims that
they have obtained approval from the head of the complex," he
said. "The demolition order was signed by the deputy governor for
government affairs," he added.

An official of the city social agency also approved of the
demolition, saying that his agency had no intentions of
increasing the number of rooms in the complex.

"Kramat Tunggak is also meant to function as a rehabilitation
center for prostitutes. We have decided that new prostitutes must
not outnumber the rehabilitated prostitutes," M. Sihombing, the
head of the agency's rehabilitation department said.

In 1989, the complex began functioning as prostitute
rehabilitation center, offering prostitutes courses and training.

The city administration has been tougher on illegal
prostitution complexes, including the notorious Pejompongan Indah
complex in Central Jakarta.

The mayoralty has ordered the brothel operators to close down
their businesses, and some 30 brothel houses have been sealed off
since March. Rumors said a low-cost apartment building would be
built in the area. The mayoralty, however, has refused to
comment. Many of the Central Jakarta complex's prostitutes have
reportedly moved to Kramat Tunggak. (yns/sur)