D

espite claiming to have the most women worldwide employed in its ranks, the job of domestic worker is a marginalized one that offers its participants a life as a second-class citizen, an activist said Thursday.

"They're recognized not as workers, but helpers," said Rumpun Tjoet Njak Dien (RTND) advocacy coordinator Buyung Ridwan Tanjung.

There are an estimated 100 million domestic workers worldwide, according to 2009 data from the International Labour Organization.

On the home front, there were more than 3 million domestic workers in Indonesia in 2008, says the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), and more than 6 million Indonesian migrant domestic workers overseas.

Yogyakarta is home to more than 35,000 domestic workers, Buyung said.

The Yogyakarta Domestic Workers Organization Congress (KOY), which RTND helped established in 2007, currently lists 18 domestic worker groups, the RTND school's alumni association and a domestic worker family organization as its members.

Each of the groups has between 15 and 25 members.

So far, Buyung said, only Yogyakarta municipality had recognized domestic workers as workers, as stipulated in a 2009 municipal bylaw on labor management, which he said was the result of 10 years of struggle by, among others, his organization.

To show appreciation, he went on, the KOY Awards would be presented to four individuals or institutions during a performance on Saturday.

The recipients are Yogyakarta Mayor Herry Zudianto, women's rights activist Lita Angraeni (chairwoman of the National Network for Domestic Workers Advocacy), the Yogyakarta municipal legislature and the Yogyakarta municipal labor agency.

In cooperation with the Association of Yogyakarta Theaters (GTY) and RTND, the KOY will hold a performance festival Saturday at the Yogyakarta Cultural Center compound.

The festival will present 11 theater groups featuring domestic worker associations from across Yogyakarta.

"Through the festival we want to voice our aspiration that we, domestic workers, also have the right to be recognized as workers and deserve to receive humane treatment from employers," said KOY secretary-general Murtini.

Festival organizing committee chairman Nono Karsono said the event was part of programs to celebrate the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which falls on Dec. 10.

"Through the event we want to build the same understanding among the community that domestic workers' rights are exactly the same as human rights," said Nono, RTND's domestic worker education, development and organization coordinator.