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mid threats of eviction in Kampung Rawa, West Jakarta, women in the neighborhood are playing important roles to maintain the village.

Sri Wiyanti Eddyono, a doctoral candidate at Australia'€™s Monash University who recently conducted research on the role of women in urban slums, found that women were more concerned and took on bigger roles than men, both domestically and within the slum'€™s informal organization.

Kampung Rawa is a small but densely populated urban slum with around 8,000 residents. Most of the land on which residents have built houses is owned by the Finance Ministry'€™s tax office.

People began moving into the area in 1983, when the land was still vacant. They started building homes and dozens of people followed suit.

Although they were evicted from their houses, which were later demolished by the Public Order Agency in 1993, the residents went back and rebuilt their homes in 1996. By 1998, the neighborhood became densely populated, with thousands of families taking up residence in the area.

But since then, the residents have faced daily threats of eviction.

According to Sri, the neighborhood'€™s women fight for the land every day. Most of them have visited the mayor'€™s office or the district or district head'€™s office.

'€œThe women in Kampung Rawa have a bigger role than the men. This is because they are concerned about their children'€™s future. If they'€™re evicted, their children'€™s future will be negatively affected,'€ Sri said during a discussion organized by the Rujak Center for Urban Studies held at its headquarters in Central Jakarta recently.

She said that the women were, by instinct, more protective and defensive of their territory because they wanted to secure their children'€™s future.

'€œThese women also do a lot for the neighborhood. They formed a preschool for the local kids, they organize weekly Koran recitals and they are also the first line of defense when it comes to eviction,'€ Sri said.

She said NGOs often visited the neighborhood to offer help to the residents. Most of the women welcome the NGOs and can usually sense which ones genuinely want to help.

Sri further said that the women were not only active in organizational activities within the neighborhood but most of them also multitasked by taking care of their children and earning additional income on the side.

'€œThe money that their husbands make is not enough. Therefore they must also work. At the same time, they have to take care of their children as well,'€ Sri said.

She said that the men acknowledged the women'€™s important role in the neighborhood. '€œThe men admitted that the neighborhood would not survive if it weren'€™t for the women.'€™'€

Meanwhile, Rujak researcher Dian Tri Irawaty, who attended the discussion, said that she saw similar behavior from the families who were evicted in Pluit, North Jakarta, to make way for the development of the Pluit Reservoir.

'€œThe women negotiated with the city administration. They were eventually relocated to a rusunawa [low-cost rental apartment] but the women still tried to negotiate with the city for additional facilities,'€ Dian said.

Meanwhile, she added, the men accepted what they were given and did not negotiate with the city administration.