Domestic helpers are among Indonesia’s most vulnerable citizens. After innumerable reports of terrible abuse that Indonesian domestic workers suffered in various Middle Eastern countries, the government decided to ban them from working in 21 of those countries last year.
But while the government has taken strong steps to help protect Indonesian domestic workers in other countries, some argue that they are not doing nearly enough to protect those working here at home. And they say that a lack of media coverage is part of the problem.
The National Advocacy Network for Housemaids (Jala PRT) has already recorded an alarming 103 cases of violence against domestic helpers just this year
“Only four [were publicised] in the media,” said Jala PRT National Coordinator Lita Anggraini yesterday as quoted by Tempo.
One of those four cases was about a dometic worker who escaped from her employers’ home in East Jakarta where she had endured years of confinement and savage torture.
The data on domestic helper abuse cases was released by Jala PRT in honor of Hari Pekerja Rumah Tangga Nasional (National Domestic Workers Day), which is actually today.
Lita said that the data came from several regions including Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Medan, and Lampung. The 103 cases so far this year are only those that were reported to the police, so it’s likely that the actual number of violent incidents against domestic helpers in 2016 is much, much higher.
Lita said that Jala PRT has already looked into 12 cases of employers torturing their domestic helpers this year in addition to numerous cases of psychological abuse and wages being withheld which Jala defines as a form of economic violence.
The 103 cases that have already been recorded this year show a disturbing increase over last year in which 402 cases of violence against domestic helpers were recorded in all of 2015.
Lita said that as many as 65 percent of all domestic workers receive harsh treatment from their employers or agency as some point, including confinement, assault, harassment or unpaid wages. About 80 percent of police reports about violence against domestic workers go uninvestigated.
Jala PRT is using National Domestic Workers Day to once again call on Commission XI of the House of Representatives and the government to discuss and approve their draft law on Protections for Domestic Workers.
“For 12 years we have submitted the draft,” Lita said.
Lita said the proposed laws would help prevent Indonesia’s estimated 10.7 million domestic workers from being exploited or abused as well as provide clear legal guidelines that could also protect employers.
Considering how many of us rely upon domestic workers to clean our homes, cook our food and help raise our children, giving them those kind of legal protections seems like the very least our government can do for them.
