The government should change the development paradigm from exclusive to inclusive, whereby marginal groups such as porters have the same rights to be involved in development.
By
SAIFUL RIJAL YUNUS, RUNIK SRI ASTUTI
·5 minutes read
REBIYYAH SALASAH
Mistar (56), a porter from Bogor, West Java, is carrying chicory which will be sold by traders at the Kramat Jati Main Market, East Jakarta, Wednesday (8/3/2023).
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The economic pulse in the country is marked by the role of porters in the distribution chain of goods or through the services offered to consumers. Ironically, most of them are still mired in poverty and they have not fully received decent social protection.
The majority of porters are not prosperous. The education of those who are in the work is on average not high with minimal capital and business opportunities in other sectors. The income earned from relying on muscle has not allowed them to live properly.
The life story of Mistar (56), a vegetable porter in the Kramatjati Main Market, East Jakarta, gives a real picture of the conditions. The man who did not graduate from elementary school had no choice to meet the needs of the family other than being a porter. He "inherited" the work of his father who is also a porter.
Despite decades of working as a porter, his income per day ranges from Rp 50,000 to Rp 100,000. Even though mediocre, he has tried to send his children to school at least until middle or high school. "At least my children will have a higher education than me who did not graduate from elementary school," he said on Wednesday (8/3/2023).
Even though a porter’s income is not certain and far from generous, some of them remain until old age. Maru (70), a porter at Tanjung Perak Harbor, Surabaya, East Java, is one of these.
His average income is only Rp 50,000 per day. This unreliable income is inseparable from the absence of formal bonds between the porters and their service users. In addition, there is no standard tariff for the services provided, which would empower them more.
NASRUN KATINGKA
Maming (62), a porter carrying a sack of rice at the Cipinang Rice Main Market, Wednesday (8/3/2023).
A sociologist from Halu Oleo University, Kendari, Bahtiar, believes the profession of porter is the last choice for people who are trying to survive. They are forced to become porters because they have no other choice. Even more so if they already have dependents in the midst of uncertain economic conditions.
In fact, in line with the time, more and more people enter this field, with those who work ranging from young people to parents. This has an impact on decreased income.
Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) Bhima Yudhistira says porters have a significant role, especially in the supply chain, starting from the upstream sector. Without their presence, business turnover would definitely be disrupted. "However, they are vulnerable because the wages are uncertain, long working hours and not being protected by social safety nets," Bhima said.
The government, according to him, needs to support porters by providing a social safety net. Although they are informal workers, it does not mean that both their health and welfare cannot be protected.
Regarding health insurance, for example, the porters can be included in the criteria for recipients of contribution assistance (PBI). Based on Social Affairs Minister Regulation No. 21/2019 on requirements and procedures for changes to data recipients of health insurance contributions, PBI recipients are the poor and underprivileged people.
The underprivileged are people with a livelihood that is only able to meet the decent basic needs, but unable to pay for health insurance contributions for themselves and their families.
“The Health Care and Social Security Agency [BPJS Kesehatan] needs to pick up the ball by registering porters. The approach has to be different and cannot be digital, which cannot be accessed by them. The government needs to be active and go directly to them. This effort needs to be carried out on a big scale,” Bhima said.
KOMPAS/NIKSON SINAGA
A porter helps lift passengers' goods onto the Kelud Passenger Motor Boat which is about to depart for Batam and Jakarta at the Bandar Deli Passenger Terminal, Belawan Port, Medan, North Sumatra, Tuesday (7/3/2023).
In a polling by the Kompas Research and Development Division (Litbang) of 508 respondents on the national level, 67.9 percent of respondents believed that porters got no attention at all from the government and related agencies.
Some 41 percent of the respondents urged the government or related agencies to give attention by determining decent wages or minimum tariffs for services given by the porters. Up to 18 percent of respondents urged the government to provide health insurance and 14 percent of respondents to give health protection guarantees.
In the context of employment rules, a lecturer on employment law at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Nabiyla Risfa Izzati, argued that a porter who is classified as an informal worker is indeed difficult to protect. The problem is caused by employment regulation biases toward formal workers.
The mechanism for determining wages will be helped by the existence of an association of porters.
Nevertheless, the government can return to the Constitution, which stipulates that the state is obliged to protect all its citizens. Basic protection must be given, among other ways, by ensuring they have active social security.
"There needs to be a breakthrough policy that can be made. Not always through the formalization of the work of these porters, the important thing is to ensure that their basic rights are fulfilled,” said Nabiyla.
On the other hand, she encouraged the porters to empower themselves through an association. At least there is a kind of a place for these porters to be able to take care of things related to health and the sustainability of their work.
"The mechanism for determining wages will be helped by the existence of an association of porters. Thus, they can negotiate with their service users," she said.
Meanwhile, Bahtiar suggested that the government change the development paradigm from exclusive to inclusive, whereby marginal groups such as porters have the same rights to be involved in development. ( Z06)
/https%3A%2F%2Fasset.kgnewsroom.com%2Fphoto%2Fpre%2F2023%2F03%2F11%2F59fd387d-24cc-40d8-8674-5a23a8d33255_jpg.jpg){kind=logo}
