Jakarta – Most cases of violence against women take place within the victim's home, and are committed by a close relative, making it socially complicated for the victim to make a report.
"We still have a lot of homework to do [in dealing with violence against women]," Deputy Women's Empowerment Minister Syafrudin Setia Budi said Monday. "The real number of violence cases against women could be higher than we know because not all of the victims report the assaults," he said.
He said more Indonesian women were reporting abuse cases now than over the past few years, but law enforcers were slow at investigating the cases.
The National Commission on Violence against Women reported that there were 105,103 violence cases last year. More than 98,000 cases, or 97 percent of the total, involved domestic violence against wives.
The ministry provided legal assistance in 3,326 cases, health assistance in 5,994 cases and social rehabilitation in 1,352 cases, meaning it provided some kind of assistance in less than 10 percent of the total recorded cases.
"Once we have encouraged the women to report the abuse, we should show our commitment in dealing with it," Syafrudin said.
To boost cooperation to protect women from domestic violence, the ministry has actively signed several agreements with other state institutions. Last Friday, the ministry signed a memorandum of understanding on gender mainstreaming and improvement of gender-based services with the National Police.
Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Linda Amalia Sari said that she hoped the police would provide more intensive legal assistance for abused women and children.
"I highly appreciate what the police have done. However, we are still facing many challenges because violence against women is still rampant," she said.
National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo said his institution took cases of violence against women and children seriously. "We will follow up on the reports on domestic violence and child abuse," he said.
Timur said that his institution had supported protection for women and children by establishing women and children's assistance centers in district police offices in Indonesia. "Now we have 306 assistance centers throughout the country. We hope there will be many more in the upcoming years," he said.
He said the police institution had also tried to "create a comfortable atmosphere for women and children". "Most officers serving in the women and children units are women. I believe women feel more comfortable talking with women," he said.
The ministry reported last year that more than 60 percent of the victims were jobless women. It said that abused women who did not have financial freedom tended to express their desperation to their children.
A survey conducted by the National Commission for Child Protection showed that 70 percent of those that abused children were mothers who had been abused by their husbands.
"The powerless mother often becomes depressive and abusive to her children," said Arist Merdeka Sirait, the commission chairman. "It's like a circle: poverty, depressed mother and then child abuse. If we want to eradicate child abuse, first of all we should liberate the mothers from all oppression and abuse," he said. (lfr)