Families in Women’s Hands
Stories of female heads of families are rare, in particular when they are single parents, single providers, living in some of Indonesia’s outlying and remote areas. The odds are often against them—lower wages than men and the stigma of being a janda (divorcee or widow) affecting their efforts at finding work or getting loans. Many of them have little or no knowledge of their rights and are often on the losing end, on issues like divorce or physical abuse. Yet they survive, determined to give their children the chance of a life better than theirs. Tempo English Edition reports on how single women parents cope in West Nusa Tenggara, East Flores, and West Kalimantan.
November 17, 2010
LAMINAH’S routine starts every day at 8am by feeding the fish in her fish basket at the edge of the Ainjeli river. In the 4 x 1.5-meter bamboo basket, some 2,000 red, white and black ikan nila (Nile tilapia—Oreochromis niloticus) stir up a storm as they gorge themselves on breakfast. “When they’re full, they go back down to the bottom again,” explained the 32-year-old Laminah.
Laminah has been farming fish for a number of years, and ha
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