HIV/AIDS and the position of women in Indonesia
HIV and AIDS in Indonesia
HIV prevalence in adults is approximately 0.1%. This percentage loosely represents about 100,000 people living with HIV/AIDS. Almost five times more men than women are HIV+. Although prevalence is currently low, epidemiological modelling shows that, given the current circumstances, another 80,000 could contract HIV in a single year. Indonesia is thus poised for a major epidemic.
The two most affected islands are Java and Papua. The highest concentration of people living with HIV are to be found in Jakarta and Surabaya, with 60% of all new cases of HIV in these cities in young men aged 15-29. Injecting drug use in the large cities of Java has become a significant transmission route. In Jakarta HIV prevalence among injecting drug users (IDUs) rose from zero to 47% between 1997 and 2001. The majority of IDUs in Jakarta are young and sexually active, and overall condom use is very low, thought to be less than 10%. So rapid sexual transmission of HIV to the wider population is likely.
In Papua, HIV is more closely related to poverty and migration, and the sex industry associated with both. Papua’s mining industry provides employment for young men throughout Indonesia, and a lucrative pool of clients for sex workers from Papua and other islands. The jobs in the mining industry tend to be short term, however, causing young men to come and go, thus facilitating HIV spread.
Sex work in Indonesia is not limited to Papua. There are an estimated 190,000-270,000 female sex workers in Indonesia and clients of sex workers number between seven and ten million. Current sex work conditions are certain to be a key factor in the spread of HIV in Indonesia. There is a low level of condom use, partly due to the fact that sex workers are afraid to carry them, as police sometimes view them as evidence of prostitution.
Position of women in Indonesia
Despite a variation in the status of women across different areas of Indonesia, Indonesian traditions in general place women in the role of homemaker and caregiver. This view is explicitly mentioned in the country’s constitution and in the government’s main development policy. The policy states that women’s participation in the development process must not conflict with their role in improving family welfare and the education of the younger generation, and it includes a role as wife and mother among women’s duties.
Overall, violence against women is on the rise. The National Commission on Violence Against Women, established after the mass rape of Chinese Indonesian women in Jakarta in May 1998, reported 14,020 cases of violence against women in 2005. This is nearly double the figure reported in 2004. The response to violence against women is poor at various levels: discrimination exists throughout the justice system; violence at home is considered a family affair, with women keeping silent for the sake of family honour; and women lack knowledge of their legal rights.
A law was passed in 2004 that provides a framework for government, police and community responses to domestic violence, and criminalises marital rape. Nationwide, the police operate “special crisis rooms” or “women’s desks” where female officers can receive criminal reports from victims of violence and where victims can find temporary shelter. The Indonesian government recently announced a policy of ‘zero tolerance’ of violence against women, which is supposed to result in educational programmes, campaigns and legislative reform.
The Indonesian constitution provides for protection from discrimination to all, but it allows for civil law, customary and religious marriages to coexist, and therefore monogamy and polygamy. According to Indonesian Islamic laws in certain states, a guardian may arrange a marriage for a daughter or granddaughter who is under 16 (the civil law marriage age for girls) without her consent, if she is a “virgin”.
Recent developments in the status of Indonesian women include a draft law against pornography. This law, specifically targeting women, provides strict guidelines for clothing, behaviour and mobility. It would, for example, declare bus stations off-limits to women after sundown. Some argue this is a veiled and renewed attempt to oblige the State to enforce shariah.
The incidence of poverty in Indonesia is significantly higher among female-headed households. Women have fewer opportunities to participate in economic activities. When they are able to work they tend to have more precarious job situations, with lower paying, lower level jobs, often hired as day labourers rather than full time permanent employees in manufacturing. They are regularly paid less than men for the same work.
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