“Like father, like son,” goes the saying, and the same goes for the poverty cycle in Jakarta’s poorest communities, where poverty gets passed down from one generation to the next.
“I started learning how to fish when I was five. My father took me out there,” said Marno, a 17-year-old, a fisherman, glancing at the sea.
Marno had gone out fishing alone in his own boat by the age of 13, just like his father and grandfather before him.
Another boy, Nudin, (13), had just came back from afternoon school when he began preparing his brother’s boat for fishing.
He was also introduced to the sea at a tender age, and became a full-time fisherman just over a year ago. Nudin now sails together with his 27-year-old brother every day after school.
Both Marno and Nudin come from a poor fishing family in Muara Angke, North Jakarta. They do the same job that adults do, working between 5 and 17 hours a day, depending on weather conditions, stamina and how much money they need.
Being a fisherman is hard and dangerous. They have to load 10 kilograms of fishing nets onto the boat and then unload kilograms of fish. They sail 4 to 5 kilometers a day to earn between Rp 10,000 (US$1.07) and Rp 40,000 ($4.3).
While other children of their age may enjoy their childhood, playing and going to school, these children are trapped in a cycle of urban poverty that has been passed down to them through generations.
A group of youngsters between three and seven years of age helped their mothers clean shellfish. They work from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. Despite the hardship, these children laughed and smiled in their playground of piled shellfish.
“We never force our children to work as shellfish shuckers,” said a 25-year-old shellfish shucker, pointing at her 4-year-old toddler. The mothers argued that they had to bring the children to work because there is nobody to baby-sit them at home.
Most of these parents have no access to resources such as financial capital and education. A low personal income means they have no funds for school, which results in a lack of education for their children. The lack of education leads to unemployment, and often life-long poverty.
“I get Rp 10,000 from collecting 150 kilograms plastic every day,” said Agus, 10, a trash picker who lives at Bantar Gebang in Bekasi, West Java.
Daily grind: Children from Cileungsi, West Java, wait for customers to buy mortar and pestles, in Pondok Indah, South Jakarta, in this file photo taken Feb. 12, 2010. Travelling around 60 kilometers every day to sell the heavy stoneware for up to Rp 40,000 (US$4.30) a set, the children must also endure heat and heavy traffic pollution. JP/P.J. Leo
Agus’ parents are also trash pickers who have been exposed to poverty since childhood.
Soaking wet, and wearing a small transparent yellow raincoat and a dirty hat, Agus had just returned from collecting plastic at the mountainous trash pile during a heavy downpour.
“I still collect trash when it rains,” Agus said, unloading his find. Agus works from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., leaving his education behind.
These children left elementary school to work and help their family make ends meet.
“I would rather go to buy more fishing hooks than go to school,” said Marno when asked what would he would do if he had a lot of money.
Being poor means these youths must allocate money for daily needs, and destroy what could
have sustained them tomorrow — an investment.
These children use their money to buy food to survive.
But when these people live side-by-side with richer city folk, they are exposed to urban consumerism, leading them to buy remedies for temporary happiness such as mobile phones, Playstation video games consoles and televisions.
Most of these youths have sealed their fates in choosing not to go back to school, in effect choosing to remain in poverty.
There is no other city like Jakarta that attracts poor families from remote areas.
Jakarta accounts for 70 percent of Indonesia’s circulating money.
Looking scared, Amin, (15), who had just arrived in Jakarta two months ago from Tegal in Central Java, was attracted to the idea of earning money to buy a mobile phone and a television for his family back home, as well as trying to earn a living.
Arranging bottles of petrol at his small stall in front of Sudirman train station in Central Jakarta, Amin has no dream job, but is working hard so he can afford material goods.
“I don’t know, I could not decide my future,” said Amin, who sells bottled petrol at his stall from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Amin came to Jakarta following his neighbor, a middle-aged woman, and then stayed at her house.
Amin’s parents and grandparents were also poor farmers without land. (gzl/ipa)
