TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The transgender women community moves independently as they are often excluded from government programs.

ARUMCE Mariska looked happy to tell the progress of her shibori business. “Now, it’s getting overwhelmed,” said the trans woman from Yogyakarta when met at the Secretariat of the Yogyakarta Transgender Family Foundation (Kebaya), Tuesday, August 30.

Shibori is a traditional dyeing technique from Japan. It is almost similar to the tie-dye technique, locally known as jumputan, as it combines the tying and dyeing techniques. What makes it different is that shibori is much more complicated as it uses knots and squeezing techniques to produce the pattern the crafter wants.

Four years ago, Arumce and her sibling transformed her house in Ngampilan, Yogyakarta, to be a shibori workshop. Arumce, who used to work as a makeup artist and salon worker, now is the owner of Arumce Collection, a trademark of her shibori business.

But then the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Arumce was confused as her business saw fewer orders. The trans woman who was born named Aris Widodo could now only sell her products online due to the public mobility restriction. Meanwhile, it was not easy to promote the business on the internet as the prospective buyers would not see the products in real life. So, Arumce was dependent on her friendship networks to sell her shibori products.

Now, as the government loosened the public mobility restriction, the operation of Arumce Collection starts to return to normal. Arumce even adds a variety of her products, which is natural fiber cloth dyed with eco print technique, as part of her business development.

The business keeps growing after Arumce joined the Waria Kingkit Credit Union, a cooperative established by the Yogyakarta Transgender Family. From the shibori business, Arumce can make an average income of Rp2 million per month. Every month, the 46-year-old trans woman deposits Rp50,000 in savings and Rp150,000 in stock deposits to the Waria Kingkit Credit Union. She also pays Rp10,000 per month for the funding of community development - this aspect distinguishes credit unions from cooperatives.

It has been almost a year since Arumce and eight other trans women joined the Waria Kingkit Credit Union. “It’s really helpful, in helping us to add business capital,” said Arumce.

On that Tuesday, Arumce and dozens of other trans women gathered at the Kebaya Foundation Secretariat, discussing the legalization of the cooperatives. A staff of the Yogyakarta Cooperatives and SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) Department was present to help them record the documents submitted by the trans women community.

Jeny, a Business Staff member at Kebaya Foundation, participated in the gathering. Unlike Arumce who was born in Yogyakarta, Jeny is from Subang, West Java. It has been two decades since she was expelled from her family who rejected Nendi—Jeny's birth name—for changing his gender identity.

Jeny also joined the cooperatives. The 39-year-old trans woman used to be homeless and lived as a street singer in Yogyakarta. She is now developing her bag and wallet crafts business. She cuts the fabric and sews it into bags at her boarding house in Sleman. Many orders come from community networks in the Netherlands. "Some of the capital I collect from the savings," said Jeny.

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Coordinator of Transgender Crisis Center, Rully Malay, said that the credit union is one of the ways for trans women to prevent them from borrowing money from loan sharks. Most of them cannot access banking services to get business capital as they don’t have an ID card.

However, the cooperatives were also affected by the pandemic. Since many of them are not registered in the civil administration system, the trans women did not receive any assistance from the government. They must find their own way to survive.

The survey done by Crisis Response Mechanism (CRM), a collective activity initiated by gender equality activists during the pandemic, showed that 57.5 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) communities did not receive Covid-19 assistance from the government. In addition to the limited access to information, it is also caused by the discrimination against gender and sexual identity that still exists, as well as the absence of citizenship documents.

At least until July 2021, Waria Crisis Center also recorded that 11 trans women in Yogyakarta died in their boarding house due to limited access to medicine, healthcare services, and food. Those who are still alive lost their jobs as buskers, make-up artists, and salon workers. Some of them swerved to sell foods and beverages online. The buyers were their friends in the community networks.

To mitigate the emergency situation, the trans women community now relies on credit unions. According to Rully, currently, there are four credit unions spread across the cities of Yogyakarta City, Sleman, and Bantul. "We are focusing on the economic resilience of the community because government policies have not accommodated the needs of trans women," said Rully.

Kebaya Foundation provides a stimulant fund of Rp4 million to every representative of the credit unions. It is hoped that in a year, the credit unions will be able to return the stimulant fund to the foundation. This idea emerged from the arisan tradition at Transgender Boarding School, Kebaya, and Iwayo (Yogyakarta Transgender Association).

The figures at each of the trans women communities encourage their members to be independent by actively conducting training, such as making batik, sewing, cooking, and make-up. Rully Malay, Shinta Ratri, Vinolia Wakijo, and Ayu Kusuma are leaders in each trans women community who play an important role in lobbying a number of non-governmental organizations to help fund this training.

Besides developing cooperatives, in order to fulfill their daily needs independently and cheaply, they also grow their own fruits and vegetables at the community gardens. The gardening activity has even been done before the establishment of the cooperatives. At the end of last August, the yard of Waria Crisis Center in Banguntapan, Bantul, was full of pumpkins, papayas, sweet potatoes, cassavas, spinaches, bilimbis, cayenne peppers, tomatoes, turmerics, and guavas. Previously, the yard was parched, only overgrown with weeds.

Rully Malay, who loves gardening, diligently takes care of the plants. He watered them and spread fertilizer. If a problem arises with the plant, such as when it grows stunted or is attacked by pests, Rully relies on the knowledge of a number of lecturers at Gadjah Mada University who understands agriculture or the environment. The trans woman from Makassar, South Sulawesi, often uses vegetables in her garden as ingredients for cooking.

The house which was rented by the Waria Crisis Center was also used to accommodate trans women infected with Covid-19 and elderly transwomen. That Monday afternoon of August 29, three elderly trans women were sitting on the veranda. According to Rully, they are also the ones who take care of the garden; they sweep the fallen leaves and pull the grass. "They are healthy because they get healthy food from organic plants," said Rully.

The report on trans women and Indonesian politics was a collaboration between Koran Tempo and Jaring.id with the support from Indonesian Association for Media Development (PPMN) and The Asia-Pacific Regional Support for Elections and Political Transitions (RESPECT). This collaboration also involved the Philippines Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) and Lafaek News (East Timor).

KORAN TEMPO

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