"wheelbarrow men" – moving homeless in Jakarta, Indonesia

Talked about homeless and homelessness and watched the 'Lost Angels' movie in class, made me recall about 'wheelbarrow men' in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. There is a social phenomenon happens in Jakarta when Ramadan starts. A pattern of urbanization in which many people come to Jakarta with economic motives through the emergence of wheelbarrow men. There are many people milling with their wheelbarrow in Jakarta with the aim to ask the mercy of the Muslims, who are vying to give alms to the needy. The term of 'wheelbarrow men' become popular because they pull the wheelbarrow around Jakarta and make it as their home. They know the right time to earn money. They even bring their family with them to make the 'givers' sympathize and give them the alms. When Ramadan finishes, some of them go back to their hometown, but most of them stay.

Some pictures of 'wheelbarrow men' (manusia gerobak)

The mindset about the ease to look for money in a big city, such as Jakarta, has become a main attraction for migrants from other towns and rural areas in Java islands. They come to Jakarta without any adequate skills and education to venture. Thus, the absence of skills, the needs and demands of life, and the nature of laziness make people choose to become beggars.

According to the 2000 National Census, there were around 28,364 people are homeless in Jakarta. This number has been increasing every year. According to Data and Information Center of Ministry of Social Affairs, there were 61,090 homeless people in 2007 and 194,908 people in 2011. This big number, apparently, including beggars and scavengers because they are also considered as homeless by the government. The ministry of social affairs defines homeless or what they call as 'vagrants', are those who in daily life has no permanent home, although they usually inhabit non-permanent buildings. Homeless people are generally living on the streets, have odd jobs (e.g. beggars, scavengers) or do not even work, they usually move from one place to another place but still in the same region.

The city government of Jakarta has been rigorous in controlling new migrants every year. Nevertheless, they could not control those people who come by pushing or pulling their wheelbarrows (with their family and belongings on it) because they do not have to take a public transportation (e.g. bus or train) where they will be checked, controlled, or sent back home. Once 'wheelbarrow men' arrive in Jakarta, they could not stay in the same place for a long time. Wherever they live, they will be evicted, thus they are always moving. 

The raids of authorities towards the wheelbarrow of homeless people

In our class, we discussed regarding individuals who do not have money as one of many causes of homelessness. I think the case of 'wheelbarrow men', in the context of Indonesia, is highly linked with poverty, further than the issue that individuals do not have money. In fact, 'wheelbarrow men' could earn at least enough money to feed their family as long as they keep moving and scavenging. However, having enough money does not solve their homelessness. Here, poverty I mentioned earlier has things to do with the government. Controlling the homeless people by sending them to shelters (social houses) or back to their towns/villages will not solve the problem. The lack of job opportunities encourages them to move and try their fortune in a big city. Instead of living in poverty in their places of origin, those people leave their hometown in the sake for a better life in Jakarta. Thus, (I know it is easy to say) the government from their places of origin should have to provide adequate job opportunities (in many forms, e.g. through tools provision, capacity building, etc.) to alleviate the poverty and to avoid the high number of urbanization to Jakarta.