By: Kalina McMaster
Where have they gone? Over the laughter and flashes of cameras, an emptiness fills the street; the sidewalks once filled with life and sound, carts filled with refreshing iced drinks or sizzling sate ayam, enticing passers-by, now lie bare. Whilst Malioboro’s roadsides are still lined by becaks and horse-drawn carriages, the voices of male drivers booming over the buzz of the crow as they draw in wealthy tourists, the same cannot be said for their female counterparts. Vaporised from the scene, with them a sense of street community and hopes of financial stability. All that is left of the female street sellers is a well-swept pavement.
After 20 minutes of observation, I finally spot what looks like a middle-aged woman. Her back harshly bent over her bike, bags of krupuk balancing on either side of the handlebars, she makes her way across the street. Upon reaching the other side, her body stiffens, eyes shifting back and forth. A threat looms in the shadows of the nearest building, dressed in an immaculate black uniform. Quickly she resumes her journey, hastily moving her bike forward under the glaring eyes of the Paksi Katon officer. As she escapes into a darkened corner, I lose sight of her weathered face and trembling back.
Introduction:
Since Indonesia’s shift to modernised urban life, the establishment of distinct female street-based communities and forms of identification have been a primary source of controversy, defying binary social characterisations of the ‘street’ as a ‘masculine’ space and consequently the home as femininized (Wilson, 1991, p.14) (Beazely 2002, p.1665). In recent years, the implementation of a range of State policies, such as the Yogyakarta City Government Regional Regulation (Peraturan Daerah (PERDA) tentang Penanganan Gelandangan dan Pengemis) No. 1 (Gubernur Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, 2014) criminalising homelessness and begging (Rahman & Mu’allim, 2021), alongside numerous informal local regulations on the presence of street workers on Malioboro (LPM Pandapa, 2019)(Kurniawan Eka Mulyana, 2020)(Ramadhan, 2022), has acted to render the presence of women in street situations across Yogyakarta ‘invisible’. State policy has forced a shift away from public ‘street based’ female community to the establishment of covert ‘street’ families as a prime form of identification. This has been achieved through an ideological reinforcement of women as ‘domestic’ under New Order ‘State Ibuist’ gender roles, disrupting former independent female community and survival strategies on Malioboro as well as via the internalisation and normalisation of female ‘invisibility’. Overall, this research aims to highlight the experiences of marginalised women in relation to contemporary state legislation through the accounts of four local women working and living in street situations in Yogyakarta.
Methodology:
Within my research I aim to employ an ethnographic perspective, utilising both qualitative interviews with the targeted demographic as well as wider ethnographic observation, attempting to capture wider experiences of female street youth between the ages of 17-25 in Yogyakarta in relation to the State and its policies. Importantly, to protect the welfare and safety of these women, participants names and exact location will not be disclosed, instead pseudonyms will be utilised throughout this article. These interviews will contain a range of open-ended and closed-ended questions surrounding the themes of current and former (pre-2014) living conditions, employment, struggles and hardships, documentation as well as encounters and perspectives on the state and its institutions (i.e. Satpol PP, Paksi Katon). Further I will contextualise my interviews and observations within the experience of Harapan Fian’s co-founder, Didin, drawing on his long-standing relationships with marginalised communities of Yogyakarta. Further I will build upon wider secondary sources, including theories pertaining to gendered spatialities as well as the research of Beazely (2002) (2003) on youth street communities in the early 2000’s.
Results and Discussion:
Firstly, the 2014 governmental legislation on homelessness and begging centrally facilitates the displacement of women in street positions, acting to both reaffirm traditional New Order ideologies of ‘State Ibuism’ and re-establish the formerly independent female body in realm of the domestic. As highlighted by Geertz (1961) and Sullivan (1994, p. 84), from a young age Indonesian women are subject to extensive restrictions placed on their mobility, prevented from socialising with the outer world and in turn ascribed domestic tasks mirroring their future position as caretakers and mothers. Contrastingly, women in street positions are depicted as disrupting this social ideology, being driven to live and work more publicly due to their poverty. Despite these forms of employment being comparatively more covert in comparison to their male street counterparts, who earn their livelihood through busking, shoe-shining, and street performance (Beazely 2002, p.1666), the bodies of women in street positions are rendered ‘immoral’ and ‘sexually permissive’(Lucchini 1994, p. 8). These prevalent ideas towards female mobility in Indonesian society reflect the indoctrination of ‘New Order’ gender ideologies, which depicts “female dependency as ideal” (Suryakusuma, p.98) and confines women’s responsibility solely to the household in the developmental process (Gerke 1995, p.45). The 2014 Yogyakarta state legislation, Perda No. 1 is seen to critically mirror this position of State Ibuism, targeting the ‘wrongful’ independent and public existence of women on the street via the criminalisation, heavy policing and detainment via Satpol PP of homeless women and female beggars (Millah, 2021, p.27). In turn the state rectifies its dominance over the independent female body, re-defining these women within street positions as “appendages of their husbands” (Suryakusuma, p.98) or male figures. While previously Bibi lived in a share house and freely worked on the street selling water, tissues and food with her close friend Ratha, post the Perda no 1. and numerous arrests by Satpol PP, she was no longer able to live in these female-based communities. Like many other women in street situations, Bibi (Interview 5, 2023) was forced to rely on her male romantic partner in order to survive, unable to support herself financially or ensure her own safety without the help of a male figure. Under the ideology of ‘State Ibuism’, the unruly or even immoral nature of women who live and work on the street are corrected under their male partners’ influence. This is depicted within the romantic relationships of women such as Tika, their partners and husbands were seen to act as critical decision makers, controlling their mobility and frequency of work on the street, as seen through her inability to sell any products other than krupuk outside of her immediate neighbourhood (Interview 4, 2023). This contrasts Beazely’s assertion of women in street situations as “economically independent” and “dominant members of the household” (2002, p.1672). The Perda No.1 2014, through is underlying New Order ideologies of ‘State Ibuism’, is seen to forcibly remove the independent female body out of the public and foremost ‘masculine’ street and into unseen realm of the home.
Further, recent state processes of ‘cleaning up the streets’ through legislation such as the act on Malioboro, has acted to critically disrupt integral survival strategies as well as the process of female street identity construction via socialisation. Malioboro, located in the city’s innermost centre, acts as Yogyakarta’s cultural and indeed economic heart, drawing in tourists from across as well as outside Indonesia (Cahya et.al.2017, p.1). While the revitalisation and pedestrianisation projects are depicted as integral in the protection of Yogyakarta’s cultural capital (Munawar 2021, p.746), an underlying outcome of such ‘redevelopment’ strategies has been an active ‘cleaning up’ of marginalised members of society from public view. This heavily targets women in street situations. As highlighted by Bibi (Interview 1, 2023), Malioboro used to function as a critical space for earning a living, through the selling of items such as cigarettes (now banned due to Malioboro being a ‘smoke free zone’) (Kurniawan Eka Mulyana, 2020), cool drinks or food (prohibited in early 2012) (Interview 5, 2023), with high sales due to the area’s high density of tourists. Bibi (interview 1, 2023) recounts her experience of being “priced out” of the area, with the enforcement of new uniforms each costing upwards of 175 thousand rupiah (LPM Pendapa, 16 Oktober 2019) (Azka Eamadhan, 2022), which without, they are prohibited from working. As Bibi notes, this is an issue of “inclusivity” (Interview 1, 2023), as she no longer feels welcome or even safe in the area due to these regulations and their heavy enforcement by Paksi Katon officers. Contrastingly, Yatun or Ratha now struggle to make a living selling or busking (Interview 3, 2023) (Interview 4, 2023), unable to afford paying high fees in even their local communities such as their soccer field. Further Malioboro further represents a critical centre for socialisation and identity formation for women in street positions. As highlighted by Didin (Interview 5, 2023), Malioboro acted as a salient space in which all four of these women were able to interact, share stories and have fun in their daily lives, while going about earning an income. These creation of a common space critically took these women outside of the unseen and isolated space of the home, and fostered the creation of a communal, female street-based identity, as affirmed by Beazely (2002, p.1672). In turn, the exclusion of women from these spaces has limited female identity construction with their more immediate surroundings, i.e. the unseen site of the ‘domestic’. This is seen in Bibi’s (Interview 1, 2023) interview as she highlights her inability to meet up with her previously close female friends like Ratha and Titi as well as her own sister Yatun, considering appearances in public together as unsafe due to threats of detainment by Satpol PP officers as well as their pressing roles as wives and mothers. This task of feeding and providing for their children, as seen in the case of Titi (Interview 4, 2023) (Interview 5, 2023), consumes much of their daily life, from waking up, feeding, washing, providing for her children to worries over providing a good future.
Finally for many women such as Ratha, Yatun and Tika, negative experiences of gendered social intolerance as well as physical violence enacted by the state have been normalised, further acting to not only deepen the outer but also internalised ‘invisibility’ of these women. In contrast to mechanisms of resistance employed by the young street girls outlined in Beazely’s article (2002, p.1674) defying patriarchal social structures via breaking gendered spatial boundaries of the street, women within this contemporary setting of urban Yogyakarta are seen to largely accept their social ‘invisibility’. This is demonstrated through the external social intolerance in intuitions such as the Dinas Kependudukan dan Pencatatan Sipil Kota Yogyakarta, as Yatun describes the initial outright refusal and later complication of her id application by government workers, stating the “government doesn’t want to help her” and makes her “complex” (interview 2, 2023). Didin connects this common problem to Yatun’s stigmatised position as a female street worker, associated with ‘immorality’ and prostitution (Lucchini 1994, pp.6-8), requiring external help from Harapan Fian inorder to gain legal identification (Interview 5, 2023). Whilst legal documentation is considered critical in breaking the cycle of ‘invisibility’ of impoverished women in street situations, giving access to basic institutions such as clinics, schools, public transport and opportunities to rent homes, this complication of application processes and encounters of intolerance is considered normal and even expected (Interview 5, 2023). This is resultantly reflected in female street workers, such as Yatun’s, self-definition as “ID-less” (Interview 2,2023) or ‘invisible’, internalising their social marginalisation and denial of legal identity. Another key practice of normalisation includes the targeted forgetting or dismissal of state led violence. A key example is seen through Tika’s (Interview 4, 2023) inability to recall the occurrence of violent police raids (or “razzias”) post the 2014 legislation (Rahman & Mu’allim, 2021) or further her detainment by Satpol PP. Instead, when asked about her perspectives on the State and law enforcement institutions such as Satpol PP or Paksi Katon, she simply stated she has a positive attitude, but was unable to expand on this answer (Interview 4, 2023). In a conversation following the interview, Didin pointedly highlighted these women’s inability to properly recall or reflect on their own experiences such as that of Satpol PP detainment, describing it as a “brain fog” (Interview 5, 2023). Whilst this barrier can be attributed to psychological methods for coping with trauma, in the case of Ratha, Bibi and Yatun, arrests, detainment in correctional facilities and generalised state led gendered violence is normalised as a part of daily life on the street. In turn, the day to day needs and survival of their households and especially their children are prioritised, with little energy left to reflect or resist against these occurrences. Resultantly, women in street positions normalise this voicelessness, describing it as not their place to form any sort of resistance or critique, internally rendering their bodies and experiences as ‘void’.
Conclusion:
Overall, process of identity construction and the consequent experience of street girls in urban areas to occur differently post 2014, shifting from collective ‘street based’ community identity to covert and tighter ‘street’ families.Societal gender roles are seen to be both reinstated as well as further amplified through particularly street female aimed displacement via the 2014 and further 2017 governmental legislation, acting to both reaffirm traditional notions of the street as ‘no place for a woman’ and further dismantle existing structure for female street-based identity construction. Finally, the invisibility of women is further perpetuated via the normalisation of daily hardships and state led oppression, which resultantly are internalised by these women, leading to dismissal or plain acceptance of conditions of poverty.
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