The West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Social, Population and Civil Registry Office is aiming to improve isolated communities' welfare through the Isolated Traditional Community (KAT) empowerment program.
Based on NTB Central Statistics Agency data, at least 11,241 families, or 17,180 people, in the province have been categorized as isolated. They do not have healthcare and education access and live in harsh geographical conditions and isolation.
Welfare office head Bachruddin said the KAT program aimed to improve education and population management since it was initiated in 2004. Now it also incorporates economic empowerment.
"The KAT economic-empowerment program was implemented so remote-area communities would not have to rely on the forest for resources," Bachruddin said.
According to Bachruddin, the central government provided funds to the Social Welfare Response (PMKS) and Social Infrastructure (PSKS) programmes to finance the KAT program.
Based on welfare office data, more than 11,000 isolated families live in 54 locations in West Lombok (1,044 families), Central Lombok (348), East Lombok (1,116), West Sumbawa (266), Sumbawa (1,402), Dompu (5,484) and Bima regencies (1,581).
"The isolated communities live in hard-to-reach areas due to poor road infrastructure," he said. "They also lack access to healthcare and education."
Bachruddin said they generally lived in groups in areas far from the nearest village, usually on mountain slopes or forest borders.
For instance, around 200 families in the Batu Jong and Landean hamlets have to walk 5 kilometers to the nearest community health clinic in Biluk Batung village in Sembalun district, East Lombok. Despite this distance, these regions are still classified as part of Biluk Batung village.
"It takes three hours to reach the village center.
"The road is impassable by car and motorcycle. School children leave home at 7 a.m. and only reach school at 10," he said.
Bachruddin said the isolated community development and empowerment program was established in 2004 through the KAT program.
However, he said the program had not reached its maximum potential as relevant agencies and the local administration did not provide enough support.
According to NTB KAT program manager Taspirin, 54 KAT locations had been recorded so far in the six regencies, 22 districts and 29 villages, but only 23 of them had empowerment programs.
Up to 2,295 families, or 9,975 people, live in the 23 locations.
He said the remaining 31 locations in 14 villages in 12 districts had not been empowered because it takes at least three years to build the KAT program, including the counseling and post-program stages.
Taspirin said the number of isolated communities in NTB province had risen due to a growing population in isolated areas, and empowerment efforts were slow.
Based on social mapping conducted in 2003, NTB's KAT center recorded 3,381 families living in 47 locations in 22 districts in the six regencies, but this figure increased in 2008 to more than 11,000 families in 54 locations.
