Indonesia pulls beggars off Jakarta streets

From The New York Times:

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Every year during Ramadan, the poor from every corner of the island of Java gravitate here to the capital to beg. They wander in between cars stuck at traffic corners, in the shadows of the city’s skyscrapers and gigantic shopping malls, in the knowledge that Islam’s most sacred month makes people particularly charitable.

This year, however, Jakarta is cracking down on the seasonal influx of beggars. Many of them belong to organized gangs and simply exploit religious sentiments, the authorities say. And they add that the beggars pose a threat to the stability of Jakarta, Indonesia’s most important city and the seat of power, a bubble of five-star hotels and luxury stores that, in the words of one law enforcement official, feeds the outsiders’ “sweet dreams.”

Thirteen days into Ramadan, Jakarta had rounded up 1,465 beggars, most of them women and children, almost all from outside Jakarta. For the first time, the authorities are also going after those caught giving to beggars, though they have fined only 12 people so far.

“A capital is built on the condition that it be a comfortable, safe and dignified place,” said Budiharjo, who took over Jakarta’s Social Welfare Agency eight months ago and decided to penalize charity givers for the first time.

“If we stop giving, naturally they will disappear,” said Mr. Budiharjo, who, like many Indonesians, uses only one name.

He said investigators found that about 500 of the arrested beggars belonged to groups that gathered Indonesians in villages and bused them to Jakarta to beg during Ramadan. Officials have arrested coordinators of the ring in Jakarta, but were still looking for leaders outside the city, he said.

The authorities were enforcing a 2007 city bylaw that made it illegal not only to beg on city streets, but also to give to street beggars. Violators on both sides can be fined up to $2,000 and jailed for up to two months.

The 12 people caught giving were fined between $15 and $30, Mr. Budiharjo said. All were apprehended while handing out money to beggars from inside their cars, an act as common as the city’s traffic jams.

But the severity of the crackdown, in a developing country with not much of a social safety net, has drawn criticism from some of the local media, as well as those caught in the daily raids against beggars.

“Begging should be allowed,” said Jariyah, 39, who had traveled a couple of hours by bus to beg with her 16-month-old son. “We can ask for assistance from our relatives, but only once or twice. Otherwise, I’d lose my dignity. That’s why I came here.”

Ms. Jariyah, who was being held in a screening center after being arrested, said she had come to Jakarta on her own. She had started begging, she said, because a daughter was entering junior high school and her husband, a day laborer, earned only a couple of dollars a day if he was lucky enough to find work.

The city was trying to steer both the needy and their donors to organized charities, though the number of poor vastly overwhelmed the few national charities.

One of this country’s largest charities, Rumah Zakat, raised $7.1 million last year from individual and corporate donations, mostly in Jakarta. About 40 percent of the gifts came during Ramadan and during the festival of Id al-Adha, another important holiday, said Rachmat Ari Kusamanto, the organization’s chief executive.

Rumah Zakat finances educational and health programs, and lends money to help people start businesses.

“The concept of charity is to empower people, not to make them dependent,” Mr. Rachmat said. “By giving money directly to a person, we are not empowering that person.”

And yet things did not seem so clear-cut at the screening center where some of the beggars were being held along with others picked off Jakarta’s streets. A bus arrived regularly, dropping off people who were then placed in one of 15 categories at the center: beggars, of course, but also unlicensed hawkers and musicians, the mentally ill, prostitutes, transvestites and other fixtures of Jakarta’s streetscape.

According to a large board, 120 beggars were among the 500 people being held at the center. Seventy-five were women, and children made up many of the 45 males. They would stay at the center for up to 21 days, though most were held only a few days before being released or transferred to a rehabilitation center.

Most milled around a large, open courtyard where laundry hung on clotheslines and neighborhood women were selling fried plantains. But most of those caught for begging were inside a large room with carpets on which mothers and children usually lay.

None of the people randomly interviewed said they belonged to begging organizations. The women, many of them nursing infants, said they just needed extra money.

“I didn’t know that begging was illegal,” said Sumilah, 33, who said her husband had deserted her and their three children. “People like us haven’t gone to school.”

Suciardi, the social welfare official in charge of the center, walked around, joking with some of those being detained. A young girl, brought to the center for being a street musician, followed him around.

In his office, Mr. Suciardi said that allowing beggars to operate freely would lead to increased criminality and, eventually, political instability.

“If we allow them here,” he said, “Jakarta will become the center for Indonesia’s poor.”

A deaf and mute teenage boy — who had made the center his home after being picked up in a gutter a decade ago — came inside the office, clearly happy to see Mr. Suciardi. Smiling, he patted Mr. Suciardi’s shirt pockets. Eventually, Mr. Suciardi reached for his wallet inside his pants pocket and handed the boy a 20,000 rupiah bill, or $2.

“We don’t want to be mean to these people,” Mr. Suciardi said. “But national security and safety are at stake.”