Natalia, 43, a delivery worker, drove her motorbike through the busy streets of South Jakarta to ensure she reached her customer's apartment complex on time. It was a hot and humid afternoon and she had to take her 2 year old child with her to deliver.
She has no choice. Her husband works as a cook in a restaurant, and her mother runs a small shop while caring for her second child. For the mother of three, hiring a babysitter or asking family members for help isn't an option.
“Yes, I will take my child with me. I have carried him on my bike since he was a baby. When he was still breastfeeding, he would cry for milk at red lights,” Natalia said. . magdalene.
As a part-time food delivery worker, her monthly income is less than Rp 500,000 (US$31.80). She can't take up any more time because she has to take care of her youngest child, make sure there's food on the table, clean the house, do laundry, etc. Juggling the roles of mother, housewife and worker, she has little time to think about herself.
“When I wake up in the morning, I always feel extremely tired. Sometimes I'm so tired that I leave the house in a mess. But who would believe me if I said I was tired?” she says. I did.
For Natalia, complaining does not solve her problems. She just doesn't have any other choice.
Similar sentiments were expressed by four other women who, like Natalia, recently took part in a government-run social experiment. magdalene In cooperation with the International Labor Organization (ILO) Indonesia.
For seven days, the women recorded their housework and caregiving tasks on their mobile phones, recording the time they spent on each task. This experiment attempted to understand how much time women spend on care work, which is unpaid work that is closely related to women, and the value it would have if it were paid. Ta.
Care or care work includes all work aimed at meeting the needs of others, such as parents, children, the elderly, and disabled people. Despite its vital importance and substantial productivity value, care work is often not recognized as a productive job that contributes significantly to the economy. This is because nursing care work is perceived as low-skilled work for women.
Nursing care hours exceed paid working hours
4 out of 5 participants magdaleneIn the experiment, more than 40 hours of caregiving hours per week were recorded, which exceeded the standard total working hours for full-time workers as stipulated in the Employment Creation Act No. 11 of 2020.
magdalene They then used their income from their current or last paying job to estimate how much they could earn if they were paid to work in caregiving. Our findings show that their care work is more valuable than their current or last salaried job.
For example, Natalia spent 103.58 hours per week or 414.33 hours per month as a caregiver. That means she would earn Rp 23 million a month from her caregiving job, which, if paid, would be 46 times more than she currently earns from food delivery.
Lillis, 53, was a retiree who cared for her bedridden father 24/7, working 103.50 hours a week, 414 hours a month. She does this job almost 24/7 without any assistance. Her workload amounted to her 258.75% of her last salary.
Emmy, 39, is a single mother who works as a researcher while raising her children and caring for her elderly father. She spends the equivalent of her 99 hours a week, or her 396 hours a month, as a caregiver. In a week she spends 35.58 hours, which is more than her 63.42 hours as a social researcher, even though she outsources her care duties to her domestic assistant. That's twice her salary.
Meanwhile, Aruniati (35), a working mother of two children, recorded her own caregiving hours at 50.92 hours per week, equivalent to 203.67 hours per month. If Aruni were to receive a salary for her unpaid care work, her salary would amount to approximately Rp 11 million per month, more than her current salary.
Although Elnawati's situation was not ideal, she was slightly better off than the other four participants. This 49-year-old travel agent continues to work from home to care for her sick father, spending 25.98 hours a week on her caregiving duties, including one month of caring for him. . She would have earned 64.69% more than her current salary as a caregiver.
These findings support a 2018 ILO study that found that many developing countries have populations overburdened with care work. Across the 64 countries surveyed, unpaid care work totaled 16.4 billion hours. This figure is equivalent to 2 billion people working 8 hours a day.
Natalia spends 103.58 hours per week, or 414.33 hours per month, working as a caregiver. This means she would earn Rp 23 million a month from her caregiving job, which, if it were a paid job, would be 46 times more than her current income from food delivery.
A woman's role?
All five study participants agreed that care work is important and has economic value, but it is also taxing. However, they also believe that caregiving work is women's work rather than men's work because women do a better job of caring for others, and therefore gender bias regarding this work exists. It has been strengthened.
“At home, sometimes I intentionally don't ask for help. I let my husband take the lead. But as a man, he is still not that sensitive,” Aruni explained.clean […] He does the dishes sometimes but needs to be reminded to do it properly. He was asked to help hang the laundry, but it wasn't done the way it was supposed to be done. When I complained, he replied: “I'm glad you helped me,” he said. ”
Natalia admitted that although she asked her husband several times to help around the house, she continued to feel unsupported. She said, “Even if you get help, you don't expect the outcome to be 100 percent the same.”
In Indonesia, children are seen as investments and assets. Bound by this social structure, children must care for their elderly parents as a form of respect and obligation.
“I just say it because I want blessings and worship.” Bismillah [in God’s name] I am taking care of my father alone […] When I'm exhausted, I cry until I can't breathe in the bathroom. I cry heartily and then go back to caring for my father. I have a child. So, no matter what I do for my father, I hope that my child will learn from me and treat me the same way,” Lillis said.
It's even worse for unmarried children. Rosa Diniari, a sociology lecturer at the University of Indonesia (UI), said: magdalene“If a child is married, they may not be able to fully support their parents because they have a family to support. But if the child is single, who else will have parental responsibility?” Is not it?”
This is an expectation etched into the minds of Indonesians about the roles of women and men in the family. While Budi's father works in the office, her mother cooks and cleans the house.
No support or backup
Natalia, a food delivery driver, said: “Once, while I was feeding my baby, I forgot that I wasn't eating.For the first time, I noticed that I was dizzy and shaking when I stood up.'' I didn’t even have time to eat, so please let me eat.” Just comb your hair and reapply your lipstick by yourself. ”
Elna, a travel agent, also said she cannot expect anyone to help her maintain her mental and physical health, let alone support from the government. Instead, she found out about her father's illness on her YouTube.
“I hope the government will support the provision of elderly-friendly housing, because it is still difficult to find caregivers who truly understand the psychology of the elderly, not just nurses who clean the mess. Because of that,” Erna said. I feel more at ease knowing that my parents are being cared for by the right people and that care is affordable,” she added.
Aruni, a working mother, wants more support from her husband. She often takes to social media and chats with her fellow moms for support. “When I complain that I'm tired from working late, my husband says, 'Just put up with it and enjoy it, that's the risk of being a working mom.'” “The idea is to distribute the work more equally because they are our children,” she said.
On the other hand, Emmy, a single mother, believes that all forms of support are needed. “I think the recognition of care work is very important. As a researcher, I often come across campaigns about gender equality and care work. After all, this work still cannot be ignored. The message is clear: this It's not just women's responsibility.”
be grateful for the work of caregiving
Arly Dewi Nuriana, ILO's Care Economy Program Coordinator, said the first step to addressing this gender bias is to recognize that care work is productive work.
“If we already know this, anyone who does care work needs to be valued. They need to receive incentives. For example, mothers need to take maternity leave and full pay. “Child care duties should be assigned to men as well as women. This duty should be distributed equally and not be forced on women,” Early said.
But recognizing the economic value of care work is not easy, she says. That's why changing people's mindsets requires sustained efforts from various stakeholders, including governments. Favorable policies to take care of caregivers by giving them financial protection and appreciation should also be at the forefront.
Infrastructure support also reduces the burden on caregivers. Facilities such as senior housing and affordable childcare services are available to both formal and informal workers.
In terms of the protection of carers, ILO Convention No. 102 outlines social protection systems, such as through the Health and Social Security Agency (BPJS) health programme, BPJS employment programme, pension funds and other systems. “Unfortunately, none of this has been fully implemented by the state,” Early said.
After all, creating a high-quality generation requires proper valuation of care work. It is an investment in the future and humanity.
This article was originally published in Indonesian in Magdalen, an online magazine that educates, empowers and promotes a more equal society through solutions-oriented journalism.
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