Prangtip Daorueng, Seoul, Oct 22 (IPS) – Unable to cope with soaring food costs, many women workers in Indonesia are giving up work to breast feed their babies, cutting back on their own meals – or skipping altogether.

"The prices of milk powder are now higher than our wages," 30- year-old Tonilah, president of a regional trade union in Surabaya, in eastern Java, told a meeting of women labour leaders from Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea here last month.

"There are mothers who replace milk powder with boiled rice soup added with sugar. But many others have decided to leave their jobs in order to feed their babies properly," added Tonilah, who uses only one name.

Tasked with seeing that the family eats, many mothers would rather forego their own health and nutrition in order to see their children eating as well as possible, under the crisis that continues to take a toll on the Indonesian economy.

Though Indonesia's growth figures have improved – the economy is expected to post zero growth this year, compared to a 13 percent contraction in 1998 – the social effects of the slowdown have far from eased.

And if women workers were among the first casualties of lay-offs and cutbacks after the economic crisis in late 1997, they are also bearing the brunt of the food problems that have resulted from it.

According to Ayuni from Humanika Working Group, an NGO working on labour issues based in Surabaya, a recent survey among Indonesian women workers clearly indicates that the malnutrition rate has sharply increased among the group due to recent changes in their food consumption patterns.

"It comes from a combination of several problems that women workers in Indonesia are facing," Ayuni pointed out. "The crisis has raised consumer prices, while wages remain the same. Women are also the first target for mass lay-offs and wage discrimination."

Tonilah, a worker in a shoes factory confirms this. In an interview here, she says that in order to keep going most of her co-employees, mainly women, have decided to eat less.

"Many of them skip breakfast. As for lunch, there are choices between instant noodles and rice with vegetable or tofu, and the typical dinner is either noodles or plain rice," she explained.

In the last two years, Indonesia's gains in poverty reduction have been undermined. Poverty incidence is climbing in this country of 220 million, among them 80 million worlers.

According to the 1999 Economic and Social Survey for Asia and the Pacific done by United Nations Economic and social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the percentage of Indonesians in poverty has risen from 11 percent pre-crisis to 40 percent today. The unemployment rate in Indonesia has increased from 4.7 percent to 21 percent, it says.

In Medan, the capital city of North Sumatra, almost 50 percent of the total 450 factories have had worker strikes as workers find incomes inadequate for daily living.

"Daily wage here is enough only for three kilogrammes of rice. It isn't enough for the cost of living," said 25-year-old former factory worker Erika Rosmawaty Situmorang, who now works with an NGO in Medan.

Surabaya's minimum monthly wage is 182,500 rupiah (22.28 US dollars) while workers in Jakarta receive 232,000 rupiah (29 dollars) and those in Medan get 210,000 (26.25 dollars). Tonilah says to try to make ends meet, each worker has to spend not more than 2,500 rupiah (31 cents) on one meal.

Likewise, some workers, unable to provide for their children, have sent them back to their grandparents or other elder relatives in the villages.

After the fall in the rupiah' value during the crisis, "it is like working without pay because the salary worth nothing," added Choirul Mahpuduah, another former factory worker now with Humanika. "Many women workers try to do additional jobs such as selling food in the factory in order to survive."

Factory lay-offs have also driven unemployed workers, majority of them women, back to their hometowns. "The first target for mass lay-offs both in Jakarta and elsewhere are women," said Tati, a young factory worker who is also working with Jabotabek Trade Union in Jakarta.

According to her, a number of unskilled women workers in garment, shoes or food processing factories found themselves dismissed, replaced by younger workers hired on short-term contract system.

This way, "companies can cut costs on welfare and salary raises. It is not difficult for them to do so because there are plenty of unskilled women workers here," Tati said.

Although both men and women workers suffer from the effects of the economic downturn, the discrimination that women often find themselves subjected to makes the situation worse for them.

Erika cites the case of a doll-making factory in Medan, 90 percent of whose 2,500 workers are women. The factory has a policy of not allowing women workers to marry before they have worked for two years at the plant.

"There also are cases of wage discrimination and sexual harassment against women workers in Medan," she said. "And another difficulty is that [our] culture says women shouldn't go out and protest."

Choirul, dismissed from a plastic factory in Surabaya in 1993 because of her role in demonstrations for workers' welfare and in protesting the factory's process of menstruation leave check, says Indonesia's unstable political situation has stopped the progress of a system that could help workers.

The government policy on social insurance for workers, for example, is not being practiced properly because there is no efficient check on it.

"When the crisis started many workers dared not to speak out against the ill treatment they received from employers because they were afraid to be out of jobs," recalled Choirul. "Things are getting worse because of political situation. If it is still like this, workers will face more difficulties."

Choirul has sued the owners of the factory where she worked, demanding reinstatement, and won. As the employers appealed again, her case is now in the Supreme Court. Meantime, she is studying to become a lawyer in a private university.

"There are a lot to be done to protect workers rights and prevent women workers from being exploited," she pointed out. "For example, we need a labour court system instead of civil court to deal with labour issue. But if the political situation is still like this, the situation will only be worse."