“Sex worker. When we see this kind of job, we will knew immediately that this is a dirty job. But when you see deep inside their life, they actually doesn’t feel enjoy that kind of work. Take a look at Ida’s story. She did that job because she wants to help her entire family. Her sacrifice made her to do that dirty job. Yes, in the end, she is in the middle of nowhere now, there’s no option to change her work (off course many company will reject her because she’s a sex worker) but only to do the same thing while she work to help her family. Oh, and if you meet her, will you happen to offer another job to her rather than blaming her because she take the wrong path?”
Next to the railway line, along the unlit banks of the filthy canal that runs through Manggarai, hundreds of young women, most of them ranging from fourteen to eighteen years of age, work at small stalls selling the same range of bottled drinks available in any Jakarta warung – iced tea, Coca-Cola, Sprite and lukewarm beer. The stall typically holds nothing more than a wooden bench next to a rickety table, with a cool drink storage box. The cost of drinks here is considerably higher than at most other venues in Jakarta: Rp 10,000 (US$ 1,1) for each bottle, two or three times the standard price. The clientèle are almost exclusively young and older men. In fact, the drinks are not the central commodity being offered, rather, it is the vendors themselves who are for sale.
The men who visit these stalls pay the inflated drink prices for the privilege of the salesgirls’s company. The degree to which a seller accommodates the men determines to a great extent her popularity – and her sales. Most girls permit and encourage their customers to fondle and touch them as they playfully push them to order another drink. The customers may choose to go beyond flirting; if a customer wants to have sex with the seller, they can negotiate with a germo (pimp), usually an older woman who runs the business from the background. After negotiating a fee, the client and girl may use a make-shift tent next to the stall or go to a nearby hotel. Fees range from Rp 10,000 (US$ 1,1) for sex with an older, less attractive worker on-site up to Rp 300,000 (US$ 33) for takeaway service at a nearby hotel. The germo receives the entire stated sum; the worker only receives tips paid at the man's discretion.
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Ida S. is seventeen and comes from a village in Indramayu, West Java. She has spent more than a year working at her stall. She describes the terms and conditions under which she works and her monthly expenses and arrangements, which appear to be typical.
“My boss pays me a salary every month, whether or not I service guests. It's Rp 150,000 (US$ 16,5) a month. On top of that, I get a commission of Rp 5,000 (US$ 0,55) for every drink I sell. And she gives me Rp 5,000 (US$ 0,55) each day for food. I sleep at her house, with two other girls. I work every day of the week, except for once a month, when I go back to visit my family for a few days. I do about two clients every night. I prefer the older ones, the ones with more experience – and with more money! The tips I get vary – sometimes it's up to three million a month. I save about Rp 500,000 (US$ 55) a month. I take that back to my parents every month. My traveling expenses are about Rp 100,000 (US$ 11), so I give them about Rp 400,000 (US$ 440). Then I start from scratch again.
“I like going shopping. I guess I spend a lot of my money on clothes and make-up, and on jajan (snacking and eating out in food stalls). I don’t ever cook myself, I always eat out. I suppose I spend a bit of money on partying. I’ve got a boyfriend, too.”
While Ida doesn’t explain why she mentions her boyfriend, it is common for many young sex workers to support tough preman (criminal gang members or thugs) boyfriends, who siphon off a significant portion of their earnings in return for companionship and protection from physical assault and abuse by clients. In addition, the pimps often encourage a cycle of debt by providing cash advances or goods on credit, such as clothes. The use of alcohol and drugs, particularly amphetamines [sold as 'ekstasi'], are permitted, even encouraged.
“I go shopping at the market and in the malls. Sometimes, there are women who come around to the different places where the girls in Manggarai live, selling nice clothes, belts, bags, stuff like that. Usually, the women are friends of Ibu [her pimp]. If you don’t have the money, you can pay at the end of the month. Ibu makes sure you pay. I don’t use drugs. But they are pretty easy to get down in Manggarai. A lot of the girls use them. They help you stay awake when you’re working all night.”
Like many of her co-workers, Ida expresses strong mixed feelings about her willingness to do this line of work.
“I knew what I was getting myself into before I came. My neighbor helped me get the job. She's helped lots of girls in the village get a job like mine. I'm the oldest child, with three brothers and sisters. I wanted to help my parents. It's okay. For the first week, I cried every night, but I got used to it. [How would you feel if your younger sisters came to Jakarta to do the same work?] “No way! I'm okay with it, but I want something better for them. I'll do it, but I want them to do something else! Anything but what I'm doing! I'd like to do something else, if I could, but I've only got my primary school certificate. I'd like to finish school and become an air stewardess. That's what I really want - to be an air stewardess.”
When asked about pursuing other available job options, for instance working in a shoe factory, Ida S. stares in amazement.
“How on earth would I get a job in a shoe factory?! I don't know anyone who could get me in! It’s not that easy to get a job in Jakarta. I’m doing the only job that I can find!”
Ida would clearly prefer alternative work if it could provide a comparable income. With this goal in mind, she is actively involved in vocational classes offered by Bandung Wangi, an NGO established and managed by former and current prostitutes who advocate for the rights and advancement of sex workers, particularly prostituted children (anak yang dilacurkan). Ida describes how she first became involved in this organization.
“The women from Bandung Wangi often come down to the canal at night. They come to hand out condoms or to tell us about AIDS. Most of them used to work down here themselves, so we know that we can trust them. And I know other girls who work down at the canal who’ve done classes with them. It’s better than sitting around doing nothing all day when I’m not working.”
While Ida hopes to take hair-dressing and beautician classes, she is still currently enrolled in a preparatory program. With limited places available in the vocational training programs, sex workers must demonstrate that they are committed to taking charge of and changing their lives by taking part in 'life-planning' classes that encourage them to set realistic goals that they can reach in a series of achievable steps. These programs teach negotiation skills and assertiveness training in order to give women the ability to extract themselves from their relationships with employers and to reassure their parents that they will still be able to make financial contributions through other means. When Anna, the founder of Bandung Wangi, is asked about Ida's desire to become an air hostess, she sighs however.
“In general, we find that we have better success with girls who have realistic goals. When girls have extremely ambitious goals--to become an air hostess or a model--they don't usually keep coming to the classes we offer. They are just fantasizing. If they have an achievable goal, like becoming an employee in a hair salon, then they are more likely to keep going. We have to teach them to look at their own goals realistically. Even so, in the salon skills programs, out of twenty participants screened for motivation and likelihood of success, we are lucky if ten finish. It's very difficult for them. Many of the girls are paying off loans made to parents by recruiting agents, they have boyfriends or husbands who depend on their income, and their social network is limited to other sex workers. Once girls start work in this area, there is an enormous amount of pressure for them to remain there.”
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