INDONESIA

In the middle of unsolved crisis[1]
Nani Zulminarni[2]

The economic crisis that occurred in the Asian region at the end of 1997 has brought Indonesia's economy to the lowest point of economic growth - 13.0% in 1998; the exchange rate of the rupiah has gone down to below 25%, while the number of people living below the poverty line has increased three times, or has reached 40% in 1999. This condition even worsened with the political crisis attacking Indonesia marked by the fall of the New Order leadership and the start of the reform era in Indonesia. The fall of the New Order regime under Soeharto who was in power for around 32 years, was also followed by revolts, riots, prolonged religious and ethnic conflicts in some regions in Indonesia, among others in Aceh, Papua, the Moluccas, Central Sulawesi, West Kalimantan and South Kalimantan, so that hundreds of people lost their lives and their homes. This situation threatening national disintegration makes it difficult for Indonesia to rise from its bad socio-economic condition caused by the crisis.

In the social system of Indonesia with its strong patriarchal values, women bear the heaviest burden in the existing condition. Women who constitute more than half of the Indonesian population (50.1%) has to struggle hard in order to face poverty, violence and injustice in their daily lives. The problem of women is put at side in public discourse, because the government and the community consider this problem an exclusively female one, separated from the developing political context. Political and economic discussions generally ignore women as political and economic agents in the Indonesian system. As a result, improvement of women's living conditions is relatively slow compared with that of the other community members.

Struggle for the basic needs

In the field of education, women are relatively left behind. Data of 1998 show that the higher the educational level, the lower the level of women participation. There are some reasons why this condition occurs, among others the distant available means for higher education, so that parents for safety reasons do not have their daughters continue their education. Besides, education is expensive, so that the poor population with their limited resources, put the education of female children in the second place, which is supported by the norm that demands female children to help out in the household (Suleeman, 1996).

Although the government has proclaimed the program for a nine year compulsory education since 1994 and a program to fight illiteracy, the level of illiterate women is still relatively high, namely 5.3% (men 2.7%) for the population between the age of 10 - 44 years according to 1999 data. This is one of the conditions that has an impact on the limited access of women to information, which in the end causes them to be left behind in the developing situation.

In the field of health, although it tends to go down compared with previous years, the maternal mortality rate is still relatively high and the worst in the Southeast Asia region, namely 334 per 100.000. In general the death cause is related to pregnancy, like bleeding, pregnancy poisoning and infection. Poverty has prevented pregnant women from access to health services and has caused insufficient nutritious fulfilment. This condition is followed by a level of infant mortality rate that is also still high, namely 46 per 1000 births.

Critical roles but marginalised

The slow economic growth has caused the tendency of an increasing level of open unemployment from year to year, the more so since the crisis. When in 1990 the level of unemployment was 3.0%, the 1999 data show a rate of about 6%, with a higher rate of women's unemployment of around 6.9%. Although the number of women population is higher than that of men, women’s participation in the work force is lower (45 %) compared with men's participation in the work force (73.5%).

 The women population has a larger status as unpaid workers, namely 34.9% in 1999, while only around 9.4% of the men worked without being paid. Besides, women also tend to choose work in the informal sector, because this kind of work still allows them to carry out their full gender role in the household. In the formal sector, generally women workers have a lower position because of their limited formal education and skill. There is still a difference of pay for men workers and women workers for the same kind of job in Indonesia. The 1999 data show that the ratio of women worker's fee compared to men's is 70.3%.

An interesting phenomenon in Indonesia is the increase of the number of women as family heads, as widows as well as spinsters of the age around 45-59 years. The data of 1999 show that households in Indonesia headed by women amount to 13.2%. The relatively high level of divorces reaching 12% is one of the causes of this condition. The households headed by women are in general relatively poorer compared with those headed by men. Besides, the acknowledgement of women as heads of households with equal rights to men as heads of households still constitutes a process of long struggle. This is particularly apparent in village community life, where delegation of families headed by women tends to be given to a son or other male close relatives.

Poverty and the limited field of work in Indonesia, especially in the villages, has motivated the community to work abroad as one of the survival strategies. The number of workers sent abroad have as main countries of destination Arab Saudi, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Korea and Hongkong. The 1999 data show a larger ratio of women working abroad compared with men, namely 242.6 per 100 male workers. The limited formal education and skill owned by women, are the reason why they only can enter the informal sector as household servants abroad with a susceptibility of exploitation and violent actions like rape, mistreatment, and even murder. Protection for women migrant workers is almost non-existent, from the receiving country as well from the Indonesian government. Every year there are always cases of violence against women migrant workers are registered.

Excluded in the decision making process

Women were the majority (57%) of the voters in Indonesia at the 1999 general elections. Nevertheless the total of women members of the Indonesian Legislative Assembly only numbers 8.8%. In the matter of leadership, women are still left far behind. For example at the lowest level of the government system in the villages, only 2.3% is held by women. Women leadership is still a controversial problem for the majority of the Indonesian community. The placement of women as those responsible for the domestic sector, limits their movements in the public sector. As a consequence, the voices and interests of women are not represented properly in the process of decision making.

Way out?

Various efforts to overcome the bad socio-economic condition as a consequence of the crisis have been carried out by the government as well as by NGOs, through several emergency programs and routine programs to overcome poverty, for example the program of fighting illiteracy, a nine years compulsory education, and the provision of study funds for children of poor families. Health examination of pregnant women, provision of free of charge contraceptives, the provision of health cards, are forms of the program for health of the poor community. In the field of manpower efforts are also made for program income generating, micro credit services, and the employment creation program. Besides, political education has become the agenda of activist groups and women NGOs as an effort to increase the number of women as decision-makers.

Nevertheless, the great number of the Indonesian population who are living below the poverty line, the spread and isolated geographic condition, unsettled economic, social and political problems, make that various efforts that have been carried out only have changed the situation a little. Besides, the dependence of Indonesia on foreign debts to finance development and programs to overcome poverty are creating new problems in the socio-economic system in Indonesia at present and in the future.


Center for Women's Resources Development <naniz@centrin.net.id>

Copyright ^© 2001
Instituto del Tercer Mundo - Control Ciudadano:
Una red de ONG de monitoreo y vigilancia de los compromisos realizados por los gobiernos en la Cumbre Mundial de Desarrollo Social  y la IV Conferencia Mundial sobre la Mujer