Marni Siti* (name has been changed), 22 years old, is just like any other girls. Wearing a red hijab with a black long-sleeve shirt, she calmly revealed a horrific story of being violently abused and imprisoned by her employers for seven years. She was able to flee by jumping from the third floor using the antenna’s cable and climbed up a two-meter high fence. With bruises and swelling all over her body, she went to the police and reported her abusive employers last February 2016.

She told the story before the journalists participating in the interactive discussion on the protection of domestic workers and the elimination of child domestic labour held in Jakarta on 14 August. The interactive discussion was jointly organized by the ILO and the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Jakarta.

Marni’s case is now still on trial, and she hopes that she could get the justice she deserves. “I hope that my abusive employer and her families will be punished and sentenced for what they did to me. The abuse left me with injuries and trauma,” she said. In between trials, Marni is now preparing herself to continue her study, taking educational package.

Cases of violence against domestic workers in Indonesia is quite high. Data from domestic worker advocacy group, Jala PRT, shows 376 cases of violence arising in 2015. Meanwhile, from January to May 2016, there have already been 123 cases recorded by JALA PRT. Most of the violence cases involve physical abuses, verbal abuses and rights abuse such as low or unpaid wages and excessive working hours.

“It is not an easy task to file and bring the cases of abused domestic workers to the court. In the last 10 years, only three cases of abused domestic workers are on trials, including Marni’s trial. Most of the cases were stopped and not being investigated,” said Lita Anggraini, Executive Director of JALA PRT.

She, therefore, urged the government to strengthen its labour inspection programmes to the households ensuring the protection of domestic workers. “We also urge the Government of Indonesia to ratify the ILO’s Convention No. 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers and deliberate the draft Law on Domestic Worker. We have been waiting for the enactment of the law since 2004,” she said.

Meanwhile, Aida Milasari, Manager of Child Labour Programme and SDGs of JARAK, a coalition of NGO on the elimination of child labour, emphasized the urgency of the elimination of child domestic workers as they are vulnerable to sexual harassment and other types of exploitation. The 2013 survey by JARAK revealed that 40 percent of child domestic workers have experienced sexual harassment from male employers and other male family members.

“These children have to face doubled harassments. Sexually harassed child domestic workers are often blamed and isolated by their parents or their society. As a result they would be traumatized for life and have a low self-esteem. We need to protect our children by eliminating child labour in the domestic work,” she stated.

Draft law on domestic workers

Commenting on the draft law on domestic workers, Irma Suryani Chaniago, Member of the Parliament of Commission IX, admitted that many parliament members were still reluctant to deliberate the draft law on domestic workers. Parliament members still considered the proposed wage mentioned in the draft law would be burdened the employers and society.

“I admitted that many parliament members still think and act like the employers. As a result, the draft law has not yet become the priority of the parliament,” she said, urging JALA PRT and other relevant stakeholders, including AJI Jakarta, to continue advocating the parliament about the importance of the protection of domestic workers and the elimination of child domestic labour.
She also admitted that the lack of national law on the protection of domestic workers have weakened the position of Indonesia as the second largest sending country of migrant domestic workers. Irma recalled her experience advocating the rights of Indonesian migrant workers in host countries like Malaysia and Middle East.

“These countries questioned our lacking of national law on domestic workers when we demand the host countries to develop a law to protect our migrant workers. How can we protect our migrant domestic workers overseas if we do not even protect our own domestic workers? This is not only the task of the parliament, we also need to have strong commitment from the government,” she concluded.

The interactive discussion concluded with the announcement of the media award for best reportages on the protection of domestic workers and the elimination of child domestic labour. “The media award is part of the ILO’s effort to raise the public’s awareness about this issue and to more actively engage the mass media to voice the aspirations and struggles of both domestic workers and child domestic workers,” stated M. Nour, the ILO’s Capacity Building Officer for Domestic Workers.

The interactive discussion was conducted by the ILO through its Promoting Decent Work for Domestic Workers to End Child Domestic Work (PROMOTE) Project. Funded by the United States Department of Labour (USDOL), PROMOTE Project aims at reducing child domestic workers significantly by building institutional capacities of partners to promote Decent Work for Domestic Workers effectively.