Jakarta – The capital city has entered an "age of extremity" where some families spend billions of rupiah to bury relatives in luxury graves, and others struggle to find the few thousand rupiah needed to ensure their children are born safely.
Deden, a contract security guard, earns Rp 1.2 million (US$133) per month. He said he could not afford to send his wife to a hospital with a standard maternity facility to give birth to their child.
"My wife gave birth to my first son six months ago with the help of a midwife in Ciledug, Tangerang," said Deden, who lives in Cipulir, Kebayoran Lama, in South Jakarta.
Deden paid Rp 300,000 for his wife to stay two nights in hospital room shared with five other women when she gave birth, he said.
Deden took his wife to the midwife every month during her pregnancy for a simple, low-technology examination for a relatively cheap fee of Rp 25,000.
"During labor, my wife suffered from excessive bleeding, but the midwife could only help her by giving an intravenous infusion," he said. "Luckily, she and the baby survived," he added, when recalling his wife's struggle.
If a more severe problem occurs during childbirth, midwives will usually refer patients to hospitals that are equipped with complete facilities, Deden said.
The income gap between the city's residents has created a vast social gap between the rich and the poor. The disparity is obvious even for basic issues such as maternity and funeral services.
In private hospitals, maternity packages cost from Rp 10 million to Rp 50 million, depending on the services and facilities.
High-end hospitals provide services such as obstetricians, birth certificate processing, obstetric ultrasound diagnosis and photography, videography of childbirth, diet and lactation management consultation, interpreters for expatriates and home care services.
Erika (not her real name), who is four months pregnant with her first child, said spends about Rp 600,000 every month to see an obstetrician.
"My husband and I just want to make sure that our child, whom the doctor said will be a baby girl, is born in a safe and healthy condition," she said.
Erika comes from a wealthy business family in Jakarta. She can afford the best services for her pregnancy, and for other things, such as the funeral of her grandmother.
The family paid a total of Rp 30 million to inter the grandmother in a cemetery in Tangerang, Banten, 10 years ago, she said.
Several big companies, sensing a great opportunity in the funeral business, have started to provide "luxury" cemeteries, targeting the rich in Greater Jakarta.
Among them are San Diego Hills, Graha Sentosa Memorial Park and Lestari Memorial Park in Karawang in West Java, which can charge more than a billion rupiah per funeral.
The Lestari Memorial Park and Graha Sentosa Memorial Park sell grave plots for Rp 10 million ($1,100) to Rp 1 billion. Each company said it had sold more than 2,500 plots over the last three years.
The San Diego Hills cemetery, which features several helicopter landing pads, a lake, an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a 24-hour security force, said it had already taken more than 1,000 orders for luxury graves over the same period.
Atia, a vendor with no fixed income, shook her head when told about the luxury cemeteries. She has not visited her father's grave in Kebayoran Lama, South Jakarta, for many years, she said. "I think my father's grave has been used to bury another body," Atia added.
A grave digger at Kebayoran Lama cemetery said that people spent an average of about Rp 1.2 million per grave, which included digging and refilling plots.
Imam Prasodjo, a sociologist at the University of Indonesia, said that Jakarta has entered an age of extremity, in which citizens were segregated geographically and otherwise according to their wealth, race and religion.
"Such segmentation within the society could lead to conflict with a great chance to escalate if it is provoked," he said.
He said the city administration had failed to encourage the integration of populations with different income, religious, ethnic and educational backgrounds.
"The administration has instead supported an infrastructure that has led to segregation," Imam told The Jakarta Post.
The administration should follow the model of New York City, which actively promoted efforts to harmonize the relations between its African-American and white communities, Imam said.
Jakarta could start by building public parks and other facilities that could serve as venues for social gatherings for people from vastly different backgrounds to mingle and talk, he added. (rch)