The huge number of female single parents in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), who are mostly living in poverty, is one of the reasons it is ranked 32nd, of the 33 provinces in the country, in the human development index. They are deemed to have contributed to the high illiteracy rate and to the mother and infant mortality rate in the province.
The NTB administration has very limited capacity to help the women. In 2009, it only reached 3,252 women in four districts in West Lombok and Central Lombok regencies.
“That is our capacity. We can only cover four districts in West and Central Lombok despite the huge number of single parents in NTB,” NTB Family Planning and Women’s Empowerment Agency (BPPKB) head Ratningdiyah said in Mataram recently.
She explained the empowerment program was carried out through the Female Breadwinner (PEKA) program which was launched early this year. Its activities have been carried out in Gerung, Labuapi and Lingsar districts in West Lombok, and Jonggat district in Central Lombok.
The BPPKB registered 3,252 single parents there from the ages of 20 to 50 years old, supporting between two and four children. They were categorized as needy and poorly educated and work in the informal sector, as farm laborers and petty traders.
For example, 360 of the 500 women in Lingsar district, West Lombok, listed in the PEKA program are illiterate and the rest did not graduate from elementary school.
“We cannot deny that the low standard of human resources in NTB and the huge number of widows and divorcees who act as household heads are among the factors that have contributed to the drop in the human development index in NTB,” she said.
In 2009, through the PEKA program, the BPPKB has provided literacy courses and skills training. The BPPKB is currently focusing on the four districts in the program where 40 female tutors teach literacy classes. Some of the women have become members of the integrated health services posts (Posyandu) in their villages.
Ratningdiyah said the high rate of divorcees in NTB was due various factors, such as the low educational level, the high rate of early marriage, and polygamy, which led to a high divorce rate.
She said the BPPKB had not been able to record the precise number of single parents in NTB, but based on divorce records at the Mataram High and Religious Courts there were at least 2,300 divorces in 2008. Based on a visit to Rarang village, Terara district in East Lombok, in the middle of the year, at least 612 female single parents were recorded out of 1,800 household heads.
“Early marriage still prevails. Female junior high school graduates, who cannot continue their studies to the next level, get married. Since the young couple is not ready both economically and socially, they are prone to divorce. Women who are abandoned by their spouses who become foreign migrant workers are often later divorced,” she said.
Human resource development of women in NTB was generally low, said Ratningdiyah. Around 2.24 million, or 52 percent of the 4.2 million NTB population are women. She said the NTB BPPKB would continue to record the number of female single parents and women whose husbands were unable to work due to illness.
“The PEKA program is aimed at improving the quality of women’s and children’s lives in NTB,” she said.
