Oleh: Afkar Aristoteles Mukhaer | Republikasi dari ICRS
Ringkasan:
● Kelompok marjinal menghadapi hambatan berlapis akibat stigma, diskriminasi struktural, dan layanan publik yang tidak responsif.
● Perempuan dengan disabilitas dan perempuan adat mengalami kerentanan ganda yang meningkatkan risiko kekerasan dan eksklusi.
● Pendekatan interseksional diperlukan untuk memperkuat ketahanan, memperluas partisipasi, dan membangun komunitas inklusif.
Supporting the resilience of marginalized groups requires an intersectional approach. As Kimberle Crenshaw (1993) suggests, intersectionality is a way of politically viewing discrimination as layered rather than as a single entity. This perspective can help us understand the challenges, obstacles, and burdens associated with structural issues faced by marginalized groups such as people with disabilities and indigenous women.
Equitable, inclusive structures must be developed holistically. This concept was explored during plenary session 3 of the 7th International Conference and Consolidation on Indigenous Religions, titled “Beyond Boundaries: Narratives of Resilience from Indigenous Women and Disability Communities.”
Disability resilience
The main barrier to an inclusive society for people with disabilities is the neglect of their rights, beginning in childhood. Communities, including parents misperceive them as dependent, losing potential, and lacking a future. This view fosters an equally flawed attitude in the treatment of people with disabilities. Instead of receiving equal opportunities and being able to become more independent, people with disabilities are forced to live in isolation and social exclusion, living on the fringes of society, facing prejudice and various forms of discrimination, and receiving excessive pity.
Sunarman Sukamto, Director of the Center for Community-Based Rehabilitation Development and Training (PPRBM) in Solo, explained that the main obstacles to equality for people with disabilities can be seen in cultural, institutional, and structural aspects. “Disability is not just an individual problem, but a combination of individual barriers and barriers to interaction and participation,” he said. Therefore, all parties must have a perspective and attitude that supports the resilience of people with disabilities. “How wonderful it would be if children with disabilities were empowered from the start, given tasks and responsibilities that they could handle,” Sunarman opined.
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, the national motto, should not only be viewed from the perspective of Indonesia’s religious and ethnic diversity, which must be preserved, but also encompass the rights of people with disabilities. Indonesia recognizes 21 rights of people with disabilities in Law No. 8 of 2016, including those concerning the rights of women with disabilities and children with disabilities. Therefore, according to Sunarman, the state must implement a public service structure and policy measures that provide a just and equal opportunity.
Vulnerability of women with disabilities
Chatarina Pancer of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) argues that cases of violence against women are linked to multiple and interconnected vulnerabilities. The first layer concerns poverty, remoteness, immobility, and a complex service bureaucracy. The next one is that women face challenges related to the quality, accessibility, and accountability of unresponsive services. The third layer is identity-based, resulting from age, gender, special needs, sexual identity, religion, and ethnicity.
She presented Komnas Perempuan‘s 2024 records regarding women with disabilities in cases of violence. They were recorded as victims in 164 cases in Indonesia. Women with mental disabilities accounted for the highest number of cases, with 55 cases.
“Women have their own vulnerabilities based on these three layers, influenced by power relations,” Chatarina explained. For women with disabilities, she found that sexual violence cases are often handled with limited knowledge and perspectives from officers regarding disability. The police have also not provided sign language interpreters in various investigations into cases of violence against women with hearing disabilities.
Komnas Perempuan recommends that disability assistance be provided in resolving the cases they face, especially when related to the issue of violence against women. Also, no less important, it is necessary to provide training to the authorities in understanding and studying the issues of women and disability simultaneously. The goal is to encourage case resolution while also assisting victims in adequate psychological and social recovery.
The “double burden” of indigenous women
Since 2023, Tati Rahmawati, a resident of Kasepuhan Jamrut, Lebak, Banten, has joined the Lebak Indigenous Territory Consolidation and Advocacy Forum (Forum Kawal). She participated in participatory forest mapping, which is currently being submitted to the local government. Together with her friends, she created a Reading Garden Post as a literacy resource for her community, helping them broaden their horizons while preserving the Kasepuhan culture and traditions.
Inspired by this movement, Tati plans to establish a forum to facilitate women’s movements in her village. This plan arose from the plight of indigenous women who have been carrying a “double burden.” This burden, such as their work as farmers and their time with their families, prevents them from expressing their aspirations.
“As women, we encourage the establishment of a women’s forum that will accommodate the aspirations of indigenous women and generate ideas that can develop villages and communities,” said Tati. “I hope the women can express their concerns, which I have personally witnessed, regarding the economic crisis and the double burden they face.”
This double burden is also found among indigenous women of the Suku Anak Dalam. Based on her field research, Yael Stefani Sinaga from the Kemitraan Foundation found that this double burden can lead to discrimination and injustice faced by indigenous women. Therefore, it is essential to examine the problem from an intersectional perspective, namely, by linking women’s issues, customary issues, poverty issues, and other vulnerabilities within a single framework.
Yael mapped the interconnected forms of these multiple forms of discrimination: ecological, economic, gender, violence, health, and legal and administrative. Suku Anak Dalam women maintain a close relationship with their natural surroundings, including knowledge of the harvest calendar and an understanding of the benefits of forest vegetation. However, massive deforestation has occurred in Jambi, converting it to oil palm plantations. This change in the landscape has impacted the livelihoods of indigenous communities, whose livelihoods depend on low-income informal jobs such as collecting oil palm fruit bunches. This work provides very low wages and is vulnerable to violence within the family.
Poverty makes it difficult for women to obtain food for their families’ nutritional needs. The habit of easily obtaining meat and vegetables in the forest has shifted to shopping at distant markets and paying fees. This has ultimately led to a nutritional crisis and malnutrition prevalent among the Orang Rimba. Meanwhile, access to healthcare is difficult due to the lack of ID cards, which require permanent residence.
Another challenge for the Orang Rimba is stigma. Based on her explorations in Jambi, Yael noted that the Orang Rimba are portrayed by outsiders as disgusting, foul-smelling, and backward. “This stigma and racism ultimately make it difficult for the Orang Rimba to access services,” Yael explained.
The government initially expressed concern for them, but failed because it failed to recognize their multiple vulnerabilities. The government established settlements for the previously nomadic Orang Rimba, but neglected to address sanitation, hygiene, and the significance of their nomadic customs.
“We must integrate intersectionality into national social policies. If we don’t consider it, the policies we create won’t be aligned with the needs of indigenous communities and their cultural values,” Yael emphasized. Policymakers should consider appropriate solutions and not ignore the context within nomadic indigenous communities to ensure access to services and their rights.
She also suggested strengthening the capacity and literacy of indigenous women, particularly those involved in cross-sectoral issues. Intersectional engagement allows for a shared perspective on the role of vulnerable and marginalized groups within the state system to achieve justice. In this new space, indeed, indigenous women must be allowed to participate for inclusivity and justice.
Conclusion: Removing the double burden, supporting intersectional justice
Marginalized groups, particularly people with disabilities and indigenous women, face complex, interconnected, and multi-layered challenges. People with disabilities experience denial and social exclusion from an early age due to deep-rooted cultural and structural barriers. This vulnerability is further compounded for women with disabilities, who are at higher risk of violence and face the failure of responsive legal systems. Similarly, the “double burden” of indigenous women, such as those in Kasepuhan Jamrut and Suku Anak Dalam, is exacerbated by gender discrimination, where poverty, deprivation of living space, and social stigma contribute to other issues.
Chatarina suggests that addressing discrimination against women intersectionally requires comprehensive justice. At least three laws must be considered: Law No. 7 of 1984 concerning the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the 2004 Domestic Violence Law, and the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Law. All three provide a framework for understanding women’s rights and provide protection in resolving cases related to discrimination against women.
Furthermore, Chatarina introduced the Integrated Criminal Justice System for Handling Cases of Violence Against Women (SPPT-PKKTP), a framework introduced by the Komnas Perempuan for inter-agency coordination and addressing issues in handling cases of violence against women. This system embodies inter-agency integration, ensuring responsiveness in addressing gender issues and focusing on victims. It goes beyond case resolution; it also requires addressing the recovery, needs, and dignity of victims so they can be reintegrated into society.
This system goes beyond problem resolution; it also requires attention to preventing discrimination against women, people with disabilities, and indigenous communities. Upholding justice and providing equal opportunities requires an approach that cannot be implemented in isolation due to its intersectionality. Furthermore, as Yael suggests, the issue is interconnected with other issues, such as the economy, structure, infrastructure, law, administration, and so on.
Sunarman emphasized the importance of rooting disability issues in cultural barriers to interaction and participation. Therefore, a cultural approach to changing perspectives on disability, starting with empowerment at the family level and including policy settings, is needed to prevent further stifling the independence of people with disabilities.
Therefore, as Tati suggested, there is a need to create a new space, such as the Women’s Forum she is planning. In this new space, vulnerable marginalized groups can express their concerns related to the double burdens they face and share ideas for more inclusive community development. This space must also foster capacity building and literacy for vulnerable marginalized groups so they can engage in cross-issue advocacy and support their independence as participants in determining solutions that affect their livelihoods.
Furthermore, this new collaborative space is needed as a framework for bottom-up movements to encourage policy analysis frameworks to incorporate an intersectional perspective. Collaboration within these new spaces will provide bargaining power to government institutions, enabling them to issue national social policies that consider the context of group identities such as indigenous peoples and people with disabilities.
Oleh: Andrianor