Nurfika Osman – Activists for women's rights intend to hit each presidential candidate with a list of demands related to gender discrimination with the expectation that these demands will form part of the future government's agenda over the next five years.

Kamala Chandrakirana, the head of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, or Komnas Perempuan, said these issues would be sent to the candidates today following a forum on Wednesday attended by activists, writers and academics.

The demands included issues such as discrimination, poverty, poor access to education and abuse of woman.

"The results of our discussions reflect women's aspirations and they need to be addressed by whoever is in power for the next five years," Kamala said.

She said the forum had agreed that the furthering of women's rights and assistance for marginalized people and the poor were vital as they were issues covered in the country's constitution.

"We should demand the fulfillment of [the constitutional promise] to protect and ensure social justice for all," she said.

During the discussions, Sulistyowati Irianto, from the University of Indonesia's law faculty, said poor access to justice was the main reason why women remained a subordinate class.

"There is little justice for women, for instance, women suffering in poverty is more widespread than for men," she said. "This should be fixed by implementing gender-sensitive laws."

Yustina Rostiawati, an educational expert, said women did not have the same access to education as their male counterparts.

She said Central Agency Statistic data from 2006 showed that literacy among males was 94.3 percent while the figure for women was only 87.5 percent. This severely disadvantaged women in their quest for employment.

"Education enables women to escape from injustice and poverty," Yustina said.