Sri Bulan; Fighting for Access to Social Security Programs

The Gender Watch program and Sekolah Perempuan activities carried out by KPS2K in Kesamben Kulon Village, Gresik Regency brought positive changes in Sri Bulan’s life. The change she felt most was increasing her capacity to access the government’s Social Security program, namely BPJS-PBI.

Sri Bulan is a 26 year old woman. She married at the age of 17 and currently has a 9 year old daughter. Her husband works as a Grasshopper or Luwak Searcher. Bulan, who only completed her formal education up to junior high school, sometimes helps her father look for grass for livestock. In 2009, Bulan suffered from nasopharyngeal cancer, a cancer that attacked her nasal cavity. Bulan underwent radiotherapy and chemotherapy which changed her body condition; deafness, numbness, loss of saliva, weight loss and difficulty speaking. At the same time, Bulan often experienced violence from her husband. Her husband cheated on her, did not provide for the family, insulted her, shouted at her and often forbade her to leave the house.

Since April 2014, Bulan has attended Sekolah Perempuan in her village, Randusongo. Bulan, who was initially very insecure, embarrassed to speak and closed herself off, slowly began to change. She is always active in school meetings as well as meetings involving village and district governments. Her self-confidence began to grow. Bulan, diligently write down the school member database. Her ability to document data slowly increased, Bulan was able to document data on women’s poverty in her village and she was actively involved in the participatory data collection process carried out in her village. Her activeness in school activities has also led her to be one of the Javen dancers invited by the Wringinanom District Government in celebration of the 70th Republic of Indonesia Independence Day. Bulan becomes more enthusiastic about living her life.

Equipped with the information and knowledge about social protection that she received at Sekolah Perempuan, Bulan was enthusiastic about spreading this information to her neighbors. At first she was not believed, but Bulan proved her information and knowledge by helping her neighbor, a female head of a family who was being treated in hospital due to lung disease. Bulan helped take care of all the documents needed to get Jamkesmas services; resident identity card, family card and Jamkesmas card to help access medical services from hospitals. Since then, Bulan has always been asked for help to access Jamkesmas services. Without being paid, Bulan helps her neighbors who suffer from lupus, cysts and other diseases to seek treatment using Jamkesmas. Another impact is that people have started to want to use their Jamkesmas cards for medical treatment, whereas up to now their Jamkesmas cards have always been thrown away because they were deemed not to be working.

Not only stopping at her hamlet and village, Bulan also spread information and knowledge about women’s rights to social protection and the Jamkesmas program to other villages. If her help is needed, she often steps in to help administer Jamkesmas services. Bulan often says, “Don’t worry about money, social life is more important.” Because of her consistency, Bulan was appointed by Sekolah Perempuan to accompany school members to get IVA (Visual Acetic Acid Infection) checked at the Ibnu Sina Gresik District Hospital. Bulan also continues to be enthusiastic about socializing Sekolah Perempuan to every woman she meets.

Ironically, before getting the BPJS-PBI card, Bulan herself did not have a Jamkesmas card, even though she understood the procedures for processing it. Problems with population documents and village government bureaucracy left Bulan hanging without a Jamkesmas card. Bulan continues to strive to follow all document processing procedures; she traces and handles moving letters, loss letters, etc. When the Jamkesmas program changed to the JKN (BPJS) program, with the knowledge she had, she took care of all the requirements to obtain BPJS-PBI. Finally, Bulan, her husband and child were registered as BPJS-PBI Class 3 recipients for free. For Bulan, this success must be shared with other women, especially poor women, so they can access reproductive health services. Bulan said, “It is important for women to have BPJS to ensure their health. Indonesian women must be aware that this is fulfilling their basic rights so that Indonesian citizens are healthy.”