The Life of Rural Women: Poriaha, Sibolga, North Sumatera

Lovely grandmothers preparing the spices for traditional Bataknese food , Poriaha, Sibolga.

Recently I’ve read and researched about Indonesia’s female labor participation. According to Asian Development Bank, it has been more than 20 years since our female labor force participation remained relatively stagnant. In “Female Labor Force Participation in Asia: Indonesia Country Study” by Smita Das, she stated that overall Indonesia’s female labor participation hovered around 55% for almost 20 years. Using the data from national labor force survey, the paper showed that young rural women is less likely to enter the workforce, compared to young urban women. It’s stated that urban women in cities are more likely to have a wage job, yet young rural women are often work in informal and unpaid work.

Rice paddy field in Poriaha, Sibolga.

After reading the paper I remembered my trip back to my “kampung” or village in Poriaha, and the condition of women there. Poriaha is a small village in Sibolga, North Sumatera, Indonesia. From Medan to Sibolga, it will take around eight to ten hours by car, or around 50 minutes by plane. Then it would take another two hour commute from the center of Sibolga to Poriaha. Poriaha has the undeniable beauty of nature. You could still see the beauty of untouched hills, ice cold water from the rivers, and thousand acres of rice paddy field. However, among these beautiful sceneries you will also see the wealth gap and poverty. Bumpy roads, broken wood bridges, school without proper electricity and broken ceiling, even indecent health center. But, despite the poverty and rough living environment, the people in Poriaha still try their best to live their life to the fullest. Once you entered Poriaha, you will be greeted with smiles and warm welcome from the local people. Friendliness and kindness are their best traits to offer.

Patriarchy is still a huge culture in rural area of North Sumatera. Most people still have perceptions that male is in higher position compared to female. For example in most cultural celebration, you would often see female participate in the preparation. They cook the food, and clean the places. On the other hand, male have more dominant position and responsibilities in arranging the cultural events. I witnessed this myself during my grandfather’s traditional Bataknese funeral. In 2017, my grandfather passed away. He was one of the brightest and amazing man that I’ve ever known. His last words to me was to put my education first and everything else second. He inspired me so much, and he inspired the people in his village too. When he was young, he worked so hard to get out from the poverty in Poriaha. He knew that there will be no bright future for him and his family if he stayed in Poriaha. That’s why he left his hometown to find a better future. He came back to Poriaha to help out in any way he can. That’s why people in Poriaha honor him so much.

Women cooking with traditional stove in Poriaha, Sibolga.

During the preparation, I noticed that there’s a lot of women came and helped to cook, prepare and clean the house. They would walk around 5-8 km barefooted to the nearest market to buy the ingredients for Bataknese traditional cuisine. They help to clean the house and provide hospitality for the guest of my grandfather’s funeral. I have a close relationship with one of the woman that helped to prepare the funeral. She’s around fifty years old, and I first met her when I came to her house to get a sack of rice flour to make Lapet, a traditional Bataknese dessert. Despite her age, she’s so strong that she could pick up the sack of flour easily. She even smiled when she carry it, and she made it look so easy! Her strength really inspired me.

Silhouette of Eda dancing.

Despite the age differences, I called her Eda or Big sister in English. I remembered, this wonderful Eda constantly smiled and waved at me everytime she met me. I could see her eyes light up every time we met. She even danced around and laughed when I tried to take a picture of her. When I visited her home, I couldn’t imagine her struggle of life. Her house was small with minimum electricity, and the floor is still made out of soil. She worked as a female labor in a rice paddy field. She lived a very humble life, and she still feel so happy with it. She can only talk in Bataknese, and since my ability to speak in Bataknese so bad, I tried to show her my enthusiasm with body language. She did that as well. She always touches my cheek and smile to show me her happiness and love. This amazing Eda, is one of many women that live with poverty in Poriaha. Yet they still celebrate life and cherish what they had. She and ten to fifteen women helped my family prepared our grandpa's funeral. These women came in the early morning and stayed until noon to cook and clean. We didn’t ask them, but still they do the whole thing wholeheartedly.

Women cutting hundred of lemongrass for seasoning.

Like many other women in Poriaha, Eda didn’t have the chance for education and make changes to her life since poverty in remote area of Sumatera Utara are beyond imaginable. Most of them work in informal sector. In particular as a labor worker in rice paddy field or collecting sand in the river. These kind of work requires physical skills and strength, yet they’re still obligated to fulfill their expectations as caretaker in their family. Women in rural areas like Poriaha, are less likely to have education due to expectations of early marriages, to have children, etc. In 2013 SUSENAS (Survery Sosial Ekonomi Nasional) stated that around 11% of women married at the age younger than 15 years old. In rural areas, there are around 13.4% of young women that were married at under the age of 15 years old. On the contrary there are only 8.4% urban young women were married at under the age of 15 years old. Overall the percentage of rural women being in a marriage, under the age of 18 years old is 51.1% compared to urban women with 34.7%. In UNFPA research, it is also stated that until the age of 59 years, the average number of children born to rural women was 0.3 persons larger than urban women.

One of the elderly women that helped the funeral preparation.

Thus, what can we do to increase the well-being of women in rural areas? For the best option to increase the prosperity of women in rural areas like in Poriaha, is through education. Ensuring female opportunity in education will help to raise their income-earning capacity when they reach adulthood. Education will provide them a better skill and knowledge that allow them to have more suitable jobs. I always believe that education is the key and number one solution for poverty. Education for rural women should include everyone. Starting from girls at such a young age, until grandmothers. For girls in rural area, we have to make sure that they can access education through school. For adult and elderly women, trainings, workshops and practical education can be implemented to enrich their knowledge. With education we can increase the Female Labor Participation in Indonesia, and make sure that the life of rural women is just as good as anybody else. To change poverty in rural areas of Indonesia, and to increase the female labor force participation are a long process. But I always believe small steps is better than nothing. I personally dream and intended that after I graduate from university, I want to comeback to my "kampung" and spend time there. I want to bring many books and hopefully transfer my knowledge to the girls and women there. It's a big dream, and I know it'll take so much commitment. But if its not me, then who? It's always my privileged to serve something greater than myself. We all should be concern about the life of rural girls and women too! 

References

Schaner, S., & Das, S. (2016). Female Labor Force Participation in Asian: Indonesia Country Study. ADB Economics Working Paper Series, No. 474, 1-34.

Surbakti, S., & Devasahayam, T. (2015). Women and Girls in Indonesia: Progress and Challenges. UNFPA Indonesia Monograph Series: No. 5, 1-91.

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