A new organization, the Federation of Women-headed Households and Unions that comprises around 20,000 members across 19 provinces, was established on Thursday in Central Jakarta.

The members directly elected Aminah from Aceh as the federation's chair for 2013 to 2016. There are an estimated 9 million women-headed households across the country, half of which account for some of Indonesia's most-disadvantaged people.

Twelve years since the founding of the Women-headed Households Association (PEKKA), "we finally concluded that a federation, including local unions and their specific characteristics, was the right form of organization" for the women, said Nani Zulminarni, PEKKA's founder and leader.

Women-headed households are those run by single women, widows, divorcees or those with incapacitated husbands due to illness or disability. The designation also includes households where husbands have left home and been absent for years or where the men are providing for other families, either in official or unofficial polygamous relationships.

The PEKKA federation "aims to strive for the rights and dignity of women", said Aminah, who has provided for her family since her father, a suspected Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebel, was arrested in 1998.

Several senior women leaders hailed the declaration. "It is a breath of fresh air in a nation full of corruption and uncivilized behavior," said women's rights campaigner, Maria Ulfah.

Kemala Chandrakirana, former chairwoman of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), said the key challenge for the federation was to maintain transparency and accountability, to avoid the country's most common disease.