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Tapol
Monday, July 31, 2007
Strange as it may seem, poverty is widespread in Aceh
despite the huge influx of cash after the devastating
tsunami that stuck the province in December 2004. And
it is the women who are at the bottom of the pile. The
following slightly abridged translation of an article
in the Acehnese women's journal, Bunggong, Perempuan
Menggugat (Bunggong, Women Accuse) provides a
comprehensive picture of the reasons for the problem.
It's not yet four in the morning but Nyak Nur Asiah,
50 years old, is already out of bed, getting
everything ready for the day's business. In the cold
morning air, she gathers together pieces of paper and
leaves for wrapping up rice and portions of food.
At dawn, Nyak Asiah, as her friends call her, is ready
to set out, hoping that she will make a small profit.
It is her daily routine to earn enough money for her
family. Since her husband was killed in the 2004
tsunami, she is the only bread-winner for her two
children. Her oldest is 20 years old but has not yet
found a permanent job while the youngest sells things
in a pesantren in Seulimem, Aceh Besar.
Nyak Asiah is not the only woman living below the
poverty line; there are many others like her. Aceh is
now the fourth poorest province in Indonesia, even
though so much money has been pouring into Aceh.
Aceh's income has increased sixfold since 1999 and it
now has the third largest budget in Indonesia, after
East Kalimantan and Papua. Even so, 28.5 percent of
the population are poor, which makes Aceh the fourth
poorest in Indonesia. Following the tsunami, Aceh
became the region with the highest revenue. By June
2006, $4.8 billion had been received of the $8 billion
pledged. Yet poverty has risen to 35 percent, the
second highest in Indonesia after Papua. Such a
discrepancy has existed in Aceh for many years and
continues to be a problem to this very day. [Kompas, 9
February 2007]
Who suffers most?
Women have always been the ones to feel the impact of
poverty. While there is no figure for the number of
poor women in Aceh, according to the head of the
Statistics Bureau for the whole province excluding
Simeulu, there are about 5,900 women victims of the
conflict who are living below the poverty line, not
including victims of the tsunami, widows and others.
Dra Lailisma Sofyati, head of the Department for
Women's Empowerment, said: 'I think women feel the
greatest impact'. She says that poverty is identical
with women's sufferings.
They suffer as widows, having to shoulder the burden
of finding an income for the family, while at the same
time having to run the household. Although earning an
income is normally shared been husband and wife, most
women stay at home to care for the house and look
after the children, on top of which they must find an
income to pay for the family's needs.
Lailisma says this doesn't mean that women are not
allowed to go out to work, but what she notices these
days is that women go to work because they are forced
to do so because of economic circumstances. For all
those women who lack the wherewithal, financially or
because they lack the skills, the need to fend for the
family is the burden they must bear. Dra Lailisma says
that it should be a matter of concern for everyone to
help women in this situation, the majority of whom
live in the villages.
'Then there's another problem. When women are given
capital, they are unable to use it as such because
they need to buy rice. Whatever capital they get is
usually just a small amount as compared with their
economic needs.'
Ibu Yustinawati who is a trainer for an ILO programme,
agrees that poverty is identical with women's
sufferings. In poor families, the men only have to
think about finding money for the family while the
women must grapple with the problem of how to manage
the pittance they get. For those who want to help
their husbands to find an income for the family, they
must do the housework first and then deal with other
problems that may befall the family for which she is
all too often blamed.
In Aceh, since the tsunami and the conflict,
Yustinawati says that the number of poor people,
especially women, has been increasing. This is not
only because they have lost members of the family as
well as property but also because they dont have the
necessary skills to find a decent job. 'Many of them
become washerwomen, street vendors, beggars, peasants
or take other jobs with very low wages,' she said. If
they were given access or the opportunity to improve
themselves or their welfare, then the problem of
poverty could be overcome. But if this is lacking,
then poverty will only intensify.
Another consequence of the poverty suffered by women
is the increasing mortality of babies and children
which is the result nutritional deficiencies in poorer
families.
According to other sources, Acehnese women are not
only poor in a material sense but they also lack
knowledge and lack access to information. Yustinawaty
agrees, adding that their lack of access to
information is the result of a culture which
prioritises men in all aspects of life. For instance,
when village meetings are held, its's only the men who
attend, or in instances when women who are widows and
therefore the head of the family attend, they find it
difficult to take part because all the other
participants are men. For those families not headed by
a man, there is a lack of access to information and
the women are marginalised socially.
According to research conducted by UNSYIAH and
UNHABITAT, the percentage of women who take part in
village meetings to discuss building houses is between
21 - 40 percent, while only 50 percent take an active
part and express an opinion. As a result, women are
not usually acknowledged as the house owner because
house-ownership is based possession of a Kartu
Keluarga (Family Card). In the pervading culture,
women are rarely acknowledged as the head of family in
the Kartu Keluarga.
And then, there is another challenge for women. If
they are not well informed, its not because they are
incapable but because they dont get the chance, said
Sri Husaini Sofjan, a UNIFEM programme manager. As
things stand at present, women lack opportunities in
many things - access to information, education and the
chance to advance themselves. All this only adds to
the number of women living in poverty. She was sure
that there were other things hampering women's
creativity. The lack of material goods stands in the
way of being active in other spheres such as politics
which is not only about joining political parties.
Political participation is very important, for playing
a role in budgeting and in obtaining scientific
knowledge.
The fact that many women don't go to school, she said,
was not because they were not clever enough but was
also because of the lack of opportunities. She said
she had met many Acehnese women who were very
vociferous in expressing criticism and who were much
wiser that women holding high office, but it was
simply because they had not been given the chance to
get any education.
With reference to all the attention now being devoted
to the victims of the tsunami, she said that that
tragedy happened only two years ago, but many women
who were victims of the conflict were living outside
Banda Aceh and were not getting any attention at all.
'We should not focus only on the regions that were hit
by the tsunami,' she said.
TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign
111 Northwood Road, Thornton Heath, Croydon CR7 8HW,
UK.
tel +44 (0)20 8771 2904 fax +44 (0)20 8653 0322
tap-@gn.apc.org http://tapol.gn.apc.org |
