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Bantar Gebang family survive on spoils of city
“Take picture of me,” said Tiara, a little girl with a pony tail, when The Jakarta Post visited her shack near the Bantar Gebang landfill site in Bekasi recently
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“Take picture of me,” said Tiara, a little girl with a pony tail, when The Jakarta Post visited her shack near the Bantar Gebang landfill site in Bekasi recently.
She stood quietly with a smile across her face.
Her cousin, Rasdi, 4, posed beside her with each of his hands hidden in a pile of plastic cups.
Both children then ran back into the shack, where their grandparents lived.
Their grandfather, who they called abah (father), was having his lunch next to their grandmother, who they called emak (mother).
Emak sat on the floor in front of the thin and dusty white curtain separating their shack and a slippery alley.
Abah’s plate held ample amounts of rice, a small chunk of fried fish and leunca (small green eggplant).
Having just returned from trash-picking in the Bantar Gebang area, Abah gobbled down his lunch with gusto.
Abah, Emak and their grandchildren live near the landfill that receives 6,000 tons of Jakarta’s household garbage every day.
“I came here four years ago,” said Abah, munching his rice.
He said he had decided to sell their house in Karawang, West Java, to pay for Emak’s medical expenses.
Emak used to have a stomachache that had caused her stomach to bulge, and had gone to see a shaman, a midwife and a doctor.
Abah and Emak have four children, three of them are girls.
His son has found a family and works as a trash-picker too.
His children and their grandchildren live in shacks beside Abah and Emak’s.
The big family lives in a row of shacks near a river where they bathe.
Emak said she usually gets vegetables and fish from a vendor on credit, which she will pay back with money from the sale of recyclable plastic items.
Both Emak and Abah said that they had to work because their children could not afford to support them.
A scavenger earns Rp 30,000 (US$3) per day, Abah said.
“How could my kids support me when they have their own families to support?” he said.
Living amidst garbage and smelly air does not seem to trouble Abah and Emak’s family. Their children ran around happily without footwear.
When Tiara was asked what she wanted to be, she said (munching on a chocolate bar), “I want to be a doctor.” (map)
