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Indonesians made to choose between food and school fees as inflation hits poorest hardest

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AsiaOne - September 25, 2022

Resty Woro Yuniar – I Made Nuka was torn when he had to choose in July between using what little money he had to either send his son to middle school or put food on the table for his family. He ended up choosing the latter option.

Made, from Indonesia 's resort island of Bali, works as a construction worker with tentative jobs here and there in his village, located about a 20-minute drive from the glamorous beach clubs and nightlife spots of the island's south.

His eldest son, I Putu Agus Buda Astrawan, graduated secondary school two years ago but the 21-year-old has nothing to show for it, as Made could not pay off a tuition debt of some 10 million rupiah (S$950). That means Putu's leaving certificate is still being held by the school, making it almost impossible for him to find work to help the family.

In a good month, Made can earn as much as 2.1 million rupiah – enough to feed his family three times a day, with most meals typically including rice with tempeh, tofu, and vegetables. Meat remains a luxury for him, he said.

The family lives in a ramshackle house measuring just four metres by six metres (13 feet by 20 feet), of which only half is inhabitable because the roof has partially collapsed. Made never graduated middle school himself, and said he was "saddened" that his youngest child, 12-year-old I Kadek Ardita Yana Wiradana, might now face the same fate.

"I feel like a failed parent," Made told This Week in Asia. "If I could afford it, I would send him to school for 12 years, but what else can I do? This is the situation now. I can only afford to pay for his primary school [education]."

To send Ardita to middle school, Made would need to cough up around 1.1 million rupiah (US$73) to pay for his uniforms and books. But since this month's fuel price increase, he can no longer afford to fill up his old motorcycle, limiting him to those job opportunities that are available in his village.

His family has been forced to tighten their belts as inflation has hit the price of basic foodstuffs – particularly cooking oil, of which he said he could only now afford a "limited" supply. Inflation in Indonesia was running at 4.69 per cent last month, slightly eased from 4.94 per cent in July – its highest rate in seven years.

"If I can't get a job, I borrow money from my friends or the village cooperative," the 47-year-old said. "Two months ago I had to borrow 600,000 rupiah from the cooperative, but I also still have 3 million rupiah in outstanding debts to my friends."

Putu, Made's oldest child who is tasked with cooking the family's meals, said the price of cooking oil at the local shop was now around 12,000 rupiah per litre (80 US cents), down from 20,000 rupiah per litre a few months ago.

But the price is still higher than the 8,000 rupiah per litre it cost last year, he said.

Living about a 10-minute drive from Made is Ni Luh Sudiasih, a mother of three who works as a seller of canang sari, a complex Balinese flower offering that can often be found around small household shrines, as well as the island's temples and other buildings.

Like Made, Ni Luh has struggled to put food on the table as prices have increased, so she said she has started to forage for vegetables in her neighbours' gardens. Her husband has been out of work since he lost his eyesight six years ago, making her the sole breadwinner in the family.

"I really feel the impact [of the inflation]. Rice was 10,000 rupiah per kilogram, but now it's 12,000 rupiah per kilogram. A 2,000-rupiah increase means a lot to me, I could have used it to buy a block of tempeh," said Ni Luh, who earns about 35,000 rupiah (US$2.33) a day selling canang.

"For my kids' lunches, I give them rice with tempeh, tofu and vegetables. But if I don't have [money to buy side dishes] I just fry the rice."

'This will create a vicious cycle of poverty'

Jakarta has allocated 24.17 trillion rupiah (US$1.6 billion) for cash handouts to help more than 20 million of the country's poorest families ride out the wave of inflation that's followed the fuel price increase.

Eligible families already receive assistance through the government's Family Hope Programme, and are to be given an additional 600,000 rupiah (US$40) each. Made's family is among them, having received social care packages – consisting of rice, cooking oil and other basic foodstuffs – during the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, his family's cash allowance has not arrived yet, Made said – a possible symptom of lingering database issues Indonesia has in managing its social aid projects. Ni Luh said that she stopped receiving aid packages last year.

Their children also have not received any funds from the Smart Indonesia Programme, a social assistance and cash transfer programme introduced in 2008 to tackle low school enrolment rates and reduce dropouts among poor students.

Retno Listyarti, a commissioner at the National Commission for Child Protection, said the government should revamp the database for Smart Indonesia Programme, which this year had 9.6 trillion rupiah (US$638.8 million) allocated to it to help some 17.9 million eligible students.

"I predict that the number of those at risk of dropping out of school is rising following the fuel price increase. The money from the Smart Indonesia Programme can be used to pay for transport, because in some cases the school is already free but its location is far from the students' houses," Retno said.

"The government should be reminded that education is a basic right that should be provided by the state, as mandated by our laws."

If more children were to drop out of school, it would hinder the government's goal of curbing poverty and result in more child marriages, Retno said.

"When a child is poor and doesn't go to school, they will have nothing to do at home, so they will marry at a young age, particularly girls. While boys who only graduate primary school will have limited job vacancies, so they tend to work in the informal sector such as construction workers," Retno said.

"If this keeps happening, this will create a vicious cycle of poverty as parents who only graduate from primary school will likely have limited resources to pay for higher education for their children."

But not all hope is lost for Ni Luh and Made, thanks to Bali Children's Project – a non-profit organisation focused on helping Balinese children escape poverty through education.

The organisation currently pays the school fees of 584 children – including Ni Luh's and Made's – up from 474 in 2020, and has also seen the number of those on its waiting list rise since the fuel price increase, according to sponsorship programme manager Anastasia Restu Rahayu.

"This is the trend that we are seeing now. Many students, especially those who want to resume their education in vocational schools, are struggling to buy fuel to take them to the training locations, which are typically far from their houses," Rahayu said.

"One of our sponsored students has had to abandon his dream of going to a vocational school because his parents can no longer afford to buy fuel and he can't get to the training centre."

This article was first published in South China Morning Post: https://www.asiaone.com/source/south-china-morning-post

Source: https://www.asiaone.com/asia/indonesians-made-choose-between-food-and-school-fees-inflation-hits-poorest-hardes

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