About the Movement of Indonesian Women

FEDERACION DEMOCRÁTICA INTERNACIONAL DE MUJERES Международная Демократическая Федерация Женщин 國際婦女民主聯合會 INTERNATIONALE DEMOKRATISCHE FRAUENFODERATION

21st April, 1958

Dear Friend,

We herewith send you an article written by Mrs. Geeta Mukheryee, the Indian Representative in the WIDF describing the work and progress of the Indonesian Women Movement (GERWANI). She got this information from a talk with her Indonesian friend, Mrs. Suwarti. We hope that this article will be of some use to you and also for women all over the world who want to know more about the development of the organisations in the different countries.

Thanking you for the attention, we remain, Yours sincerely Carmen Zanti General Secretary

About the Movement of Indonesian Women

My next door neighbour is Suwarti Bintang Suradi of Indonesia. She is a member of the Secretariat of the Women's International Democratic Federation, and a member of the Constituent Assembly of Indonesia. She is not tall in stature, but her broad forehead and the delicately made knot of hair at the back of her head, so typical of Indonesia, suggests a blending of courage and modesty.

Suwarti is the Chairman of the Organisation Commission of Gerwani.

India and Indonesia started trading in the ancient past, and the impress of that can still be found in the language and culture of Java.

The full text of Gerwani is Gerakan Wanita Indonesia. The word ""wanita"" is a familiar word with us Indians; it is woman. The full meaning is ""Indonesian Women's Movement.""

We cook and eat together. In the office of the Federation it is often difficult to discuss many things in detail due to the high pressure of work, so we utilised a few evenings to discuss the history and activities of Gerwani and this article is the fruit of these fire-side chats.

Recently the Third Congress of Gerwani was held. Gerwani is today one of the biggest among the women's organisations in Asia and Africa. In August, 1957, their membership was 6 lakhs 62 thousand 460 (this is an eightfold increase over the 1954 figure). Last August they had 182 branches; each branch has 10 to 200 basic units. In the period from August 1957 to January 1958 the number of all these increased. The miraculous advance within three years really gives food for thought. That is why I tried to get all the details from my friend.

The history of this women's organisation is really interesting. In June 1950, a few advanced women built up an organisation combining six local women's organisations. They named this organisation Gerwis - i.e., the movement of conscious women of Indonesia. Millions of women in the home, in the fields and factories who perhaps were not yet conscious of their rights were rather scared by the name of the organisation and it also narrowed the vision of the organisers. Despite this extremely restricted name and objective, they raised their membership to 80,000 in 1954.

But in their Congress held in 1954 they analysed their experiences and changed their objective. Gerwis became Gerwani. They declared their object in a simple phrase - ""To defend the rights of women and children and to act in defence of peace."" With this appeal they went among countless unknown and a few well-known women. Within three years there grew up a big organisation.

Their field of work extended to cities, towns and countryside. The biggest contingent of their members are from among peasant and working women. The middle-class women in the towns and cities also constitute an important sector of their organisation.

I asked Suwarti ""how and with what call did you organise the working women?"" She started with an example. In the plantation of Tilayap district they have 40,000 members. What are the types of activities conducted in the plantations?

In the beginning some of the leaders of the organisation toured the plantations and discussed with women workers. Though the trade union movement in Indonesia is quite powerful, the women workers were in many cases not organised as an active force. The women leaders started discussing with them the special difficulties that they are subjected to. And so the work started.

The women workers in the plantations are sometimes victims of immoral lust of the high plantation officers. Workers of Gerwani roused the united opposition of women against such vile acts. The women workers gained confidence in the strength of their unity.

Various activities based on their needs as women workers were started. For example, they raised the demand of two days menstruation leave. Indonesian law provides for maternity leave only for State employees. Gerwani took up active campaigning for maternity leave for women workers in the plantations. They also raised the question of maternity benefit.

At one and the same time they carried on campaigns on various demands and helped equip the women workers with more knowledge. Most of the plantation workers were illiterate, so one of the main tasks was to fight against illiteracy. Literacy classes were started and women workers joined in great numbers. They also arranged to educate women workers on various subjects through a series of talks. The subjects of such talks included, among others, what women can do to protect the health of their children despite their stringent financial position; the elementary rules of sanitation, how to have a balanced diet within their means, etc.

They also promoted the demand for healthy recreation instead of the pernicious enjoyment of heavy drinking and gambling. They conducted regular propaganda so that the wives may try to influence their husbands on this question.

Also, whenever there was a trade union struggle, Gerwani organised the women workers and the wives of workers in support of such struggles.

While I was listening to my friend one particular question repeatedly came into my mind; from where did they get the workers to start and carry out so many activities? An illuminating smile appeared on my friend's face when I put the question to her. She described how in the beginning, apart from organising a tour of some leaders of Gerwani, they inspired the middle-class women from the cities to go to the plantations for a short term or a relatively longer period. Some of them might have gone to conduct classes against illiteracy, some might have gone for special talks on particular subjects mentioned before, while others might have gone for longer periods. But after sometime they helped the women who had learned to read and write to become cadres themselves. They organised training for such cadres in their cadre-training classes. Gerwani conducts various training courses to teach the methods of agitation and propaganda, or campaigning and organising - and to that I shall return later. In this way leading cadres developed among the women plantation workers.

I asked her whether the women who went from the towns were all politically conscious. My friend said that this was not necessarily so. A sincere appeal to help such a large and important section of women evoked the response of even housewives, often mothers of children were even found to volunteer; perhaps not for a long time, but they went for a month or two.

One of the largest sections of the Gerwani is from amongst peasant women. The method of work here was also somewhat similar. The majority of the population in Indonesia are peasants and among the peasantry, 70 per cent are agricultural labourers or poor peasants. Women here often participate in direct productive processes in the field. The issues on which work was conducted included their demands as peasants as well as women.

Peasant women were organised to take possession of the Dutch-owned land, side by side with their menfolks. (Large tracts of arable land in Indonesia were under Dutch ownership). They actively joined the movement which intended to win the right of ownership of these lands for the peasants. They have helped the women agricultural labourers who get seasonal work at miserably low wages in kind, to demand that their wages in kind be raised bit by bit.

On the other hand they have especially stressed the demands of peasant women as women. For example, the problem of family life, particularly relating to marriage and divorce, has been one of the questions particularly dealt with. As a predominantly Muslim country, Indonesian women are subjected to polygamy, and it is easy for men to get divorced. Women are often left in a very difficult position being abandoned and without having legal papers proving the divorce so that they cannot remarry. On this question they built up a concrete movement to protect women's interests. Along with the general campaign for the reform of the marriage law which was conducted on a national scale among all women, they took up the demand to have women representatives on local government bodies which dealt with the question of divorce and abandonment, so that the women's interest were properly considered. Gerwani has now secured representation on such bodies and has thus been able to protect women's interests in many cases.

They also organise peasant women in another type of movement. In Indonesia today the peasant movement has among its various demands the demand to extend irrigation facilities which is one of the indispensable factors for increasing production. While the peasant movement demands more irrigation facilities and campaigns for them, it also organises mutual co-operation for digging canals and wells, etc. When men gather to do such voluntary work in different places, women take the responsibility of collectively cooking for them and carrying their food to the site of work and thus helping them continue the work unhampered.

One of their important tasks among the peasant women is to combat illiteracy. They have already won considerable success in this work. The following fact gives an indication of the measure of this achievement. In Lamongan Chapan (like a sub-division) Gerwani has 22,000 members and has 253 basic organisations there. In the past ten years they have raised the percentage of literates from 5 to 15 per cent approximately among its members.

In order to develop the struggle against illiteracy they first had to carry on an intensive campaign among the village women on the usefulness of literacy and to rouse an interest among them to be literate. At the same time they provided facilities by opening literacy classes.

I asked Suwarti from where did they get so many teachers in the villages to conduct such a vast campaign against illiteracy. Her answer was really educative. Through the effort to get more teachers, the bridge was built between the women teachers in the towns and the countryside, and peasant women in the villages. Gerwani took up active campaigning among teachers appealed to them to go to the villages in their holidays and conduct literacy classes. Thus during long vacations from school, series of literacy classes sprung up. One little corner with one light was often enough to start such a class. Apart from this they also issued an appeal that every person who could read and write should teach others. Through this they got the necessary people to continue this activity. For example, literate men and women in the villages helped as teachers. This sometimes helped to forge the unity and co-operation among peasant women and the literate women of the village middle class.

Their organisation among the middle-class women in cities and towns is also considerably strong. Among these women the constructive and concrete work that they take up, apart from their regular propaganda and agitation, is quite different. For example, the classes which they conduct in towns (these classes are not cadre-training classes but for the education of women in general) take up the following subjects among others—teaching of English; training in cutting or sewing or some other handicraft; how to arrange flowers and decorate rooms in a simple but elegant manner; how to make a balanced diet within their means, etc. In the towns they also help women to obtain free medical advice for expectant mothers and children, through the consultative centres set up by Gerwani and other women's organisations. They also give training in midwifery.

Along with all the above-mentioned activities, they carry on general campaigns for defence of peace among all women. They are conducting a campaign to reform the marriage law. They mobilise women in the political movement to complete and consolidate the national independence of their country; for example, at the moment they are guaranteeing the participation of women in their great national struggle to liberate West Irian where 20 per cent of the population of Indonesia is concentrated but which is still being held by Dutch Imperialists.

During the last general election, Gerwani conducted an intensive campaign in favour of its members who stood as candidates. The women candidates were nominated by different parties, but Gerwani supported them as Gerwani members. The Gerwani set up sponsoring committees in the constituencies of its member candidates, and through these sponsoring committees they collected volunteers who made house-to-house calls. Six members of the Central leading body of Gerwani have been elected to the Constituent Assembly, and five to Parliament. 69 local leaders have been elected to Regional Assemblies of Java and Sumatra.

The flag of Gerwani with its emblem is highly significant. A malati flower with a bud blossoming forth to burst assunder the yellow circle surrounding. The background is blue—the colour of fighters for peace; the white malati flower, so dear to the women in Indonesia, represents all the women of Indonesia; the bud stands for their children; and the yellow circle is the circle of feudalism and backwardness; the leaf attached to the stem of the flower stands for life—that is the movement of Indonesian women. The movement of Indonesian women is helping the women of their country to blossom forth in all their fullness and to break the shackles of feudalism. The inscription, Gerwani, is in Roman script, but that does not mean it is in English, for the script of Indonesian language is also Roman.

In the towns and countryside of Indonesia, the delicate white malati flower no more merely adorns the black silken hair of the Indonesian woman; it has become an emblem of courage and inspiration in their struggle to be the masters of their own lives.

Berlin December 1957.