CITIZEN JOURNALISM

Repeatedly recorded, social assistance never arrived

By Rijal Yunus

After years of being recorded and submitting population documents, a number of plastic waste scavengers in Kendari Bay have never received assistance. Their lives depend on rubbish, even though the government provides various kinds of social assistance worth trillions. The Covid-19 pandemic has made their lives even more grim.

Towards dusk, Sunday (2/1/2022), Marniati (39) had just finished work in the kitchen. She served a cup of coffee to her husband, Juhanis (41), who had just been home from sea for a week.

In the living room the children were playing noisily. The 4×2 meter living room is very minimalist, without tables and chairs. A collection of plastic waste still remains in the corner of the room. This mother of two went out into the yard, checking a number of sacks propped against the wooden fence. The sack contains various types of plastic that were collected some time ago.

"This is all that's left. Some of it was sold two weeks ago," he said, at RT 11 RW 05, Petoaha Village, Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi. Three meters from the fence of Marniati's house, is part of Kendari Bay. This area is a coastal area inhabited mostly by fishermen, boat builders, and sea trash scavengers like himself.

This migrant from Makassar, South Sulawesi said that from the sale of his plastic waste, he received IDR 700,000. More than 10 plastic sacks of packaged drinks and even oil packaging were sold to collectors. This value has not been deducted from transportation and operational costs. If calculated clean, he gets IDR 500,000 for plastic collected over a month.

This income is used for daily needs, mainly buying rice and side dishes. He also set aside money to buy electricity tokens and school supplies for Israfil (8), his youngest child.

"Yesterday my husband went to sea as far as Central Sulawesi. For a month there, there was no fish. Thank God someone gave me IDR 200,000. Not bad to be able to buy other necessities," he continued.

Her husband's income is uncertain, forcing him to work extra. Scavenging plastic waste in the ocean is the easiest thing for him to do. Because he doesn't have a diploma, skills and capital to try.

Even though he is often short of breath and coughs up blood, he regularly goes into the sea to look for plastic waste. The chronic illness he suffered did not make him recede. Occasionally going to the community health center, he was only given blood pressure lowering medication.

"If we don't look for rubbish, we don't eat. While looking for rubbish, sometimes I stop near the estuary there, pick up sweet potato leaves for vegetables," he said. "It can't be helped, we never get government assistance. Absolutely none."

In fact, he has been regularly submitting population files to the local government for years. He reproduced his Family Card (KK) and Population Identification Card (KTP) data to be deposited when requested.

However, many times he was asked, his name never appeared as a recipient of the aid. He didn't know what was stopping him from being on the list of recipients. He thought many times about checking with the sub-district or sub-district office. Because he spends more time at sea looking for rubbish.

Not to mention the cost of motorbike taxis, and not knowing how to take care of the documents. "If you ask me about the files I deposited, maybe my data is already at the ceiling in the office there," he said, smiling sadly. "Three days ago I was asked to fill in the form again, but I said no need. I'm tired of waiting for help."

Not only Marniati, a number of other women scavengers have had the same fate. They repeatedly deposited population documents, but they never once received government assistance.

In fact, various aid was distributed by the government many years ago. Apart from the Family Hope Program (PKH), during Covid-19 there is a Non-Cash Food Assistance (BPNT) program. This assistance is in the form of electronic money amounting to IDR 200,000 which is exchanged for food. Not only that, there is also a BPNT-PPKM program in the form of basic food assistance for the poor.

Hafiana (53), another sea scavenger, said that even though she had repeatedly deposited files, she had never received any assistance. He recalled that the last time he received assistance was before the reformation.

"Last year there was a house renovation. But there was never any assistance for basic necessities, or monthly ones. We thought we were probably already rich, so we weren't included as recipients," he said, laughing sadly.

Every day, this widow with five children routinely goes down to the sea. He is used to going out looking for plastic waste since the sun is not yet high, until midday. On Sunday morning, he got a plastic sack after scavenging for about five hours.

Armed with a paddle and a straw hat, he rowed the canoe along the bay. One of the main locations for searching for plastic is around the estuary. The distance between his residence and the estuary is more than three kilometers.

He rowed the canoe while avoiding ships going back and forth. Countless times he fell from the canoe when the waves from the ship hit him. Often the canoe also capsizes, causing the plastic collected from being scavenged to be scattered.

"If that's the case, we'll keep swimming, give the canoe back. Then collect the rubbish again," he added.

He must continue to fight to collect rubbish. Because, if you don't collect rubbish, daily needs will be difficult. Food and household needs depend on the large amount of plastic waste found.

There are at least five people collecting rubbish at sea who do not receive any type of assistance in this area. They have been registered repeatedly, but have not received the assistance they desire.

The head of the Mutmainnya Coastal Women's Group said that a number of problems were found regarding the distribution of social assistance to poor communities. So far, many women who are also heads of families have not been touched by aid for years. Mutmainnya actively organizes women informal workers, scavengers and housewives on the Kendari coast. Some of them are heads of families, as well as senior citizens.

Based on initial investigations, there were at least 20 families from the organization who had problems receiving assistance. "So far, there are six scavengers who have not received assistance, or have been on the list but have not been able to disburse it," he said.

Therefore, currently he is collecting data and the problems faced by small communities who have not received assistance. He hopes that the government will pay more attention to the poor so that they are not increasingly burdened with basic needs, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chairman of RW 04 Petoaha Syarifuddin said that in his area there are 80 families with a total of 258 people. Of this number, 30 families received PKH assistance, 14 families received BPNT assistance, and 17 families received BPNT-PPKM assistance.

"Almost everyone has received assistance. Because every time there is an announcement that there will be assistance, we definitely ask all the residents' families. Moreover, here almost all of them are low-income people," he said.

Even so, he does not know exactly why a number of marine scavengers in his area do not also receive these types of assistance. A number of things could be the cause, one of the main ones is data that is not verified at the center.

According to Syarifuddin, everyone's data must be in sync from the regions to the center. The data must be completely appropriate, both on the Family Card (KK) and the Population Identity Card (KTP). This data must be checked at a government office to find out whether it is valid and verified.

"The problem is, we also don't know what is valid and what is not. If we have received assistance, it must be valid. That's why we tell residents who have not received assistance, to check their files at the sub-district office or sub-district office," said Syarifuddin.

A number of people, he continued, have managed personal files independently. If you find it difficult to take care of it, there are residents who are ready to help take care of the files.

"If you don't receive it, you don't have any luck. What is clear is that every time there is assistance, we ask for all residents' files without exception," he added.

Head of the Social Protection and Security Division of the Kendari Social Service, Ishak Bulo, said that all social assistance disbursed by the government is intended for the poor. This assistance targets those who are most economically challenged, have limited access, and have difficulty meeting daily living needs.

"Be it PKH, to BPNT, everything is for small communities. This includes the marine scavenger groups on the Kendari coast," said Ishak.

If so far they have not received assistance, he suspects that the residents' data has not been validated by central data. As a result, even though they were entered several times, the names of residents were not included as recipients of aid