RURAL WOUS PIO03ECT Ie PADAT KAYA GAYA BMU

Soclo-Economic Assessmnt (Based on Materials from 1977 Evaluation Prepared for Rural Works II PP)

by Dr. Ferdinand E. Okada

USAID/Indonosia IWarch, 1978 Rural Works Project

Padat Karya Gaya Baru

Soclo-Economic Assessment

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I. Introduction 1

A. Background 1 B. Methodology and Objectives 2

II. Socio-Cultural Environment 3

A. Strong Supportive Structure 3 B. Labor Force 5 C. Status Symbols and Values 6 D. Attitude Toward Maintenance 6

III. The Beneficiaries 7

A. Definition 7 B. Location 8 C. Ethnic, Linguistic and Religious Affiliations 8 D. Magnitude 9 E. Characteristics 10

IV. Direct Social Consequence and Benefit Incidence 14

A. Direct Cash Benefit 14 B. Rise in Agricultural Production and Income 16 C. Rise in Food Production 18 D. Increase in Agricultural Employment 18 E. Direct Benefits from Road Subprojects 18 F. Direct Benefits Arising from an Interaction of Factors 20 G. Attitudinal Changes in a Traditional Society 24

V. Conclusion 25

Appendix I 26

Appendix II 27 Rural Works Project

Padat Karya,Caya Baru

Socio-Economic Assessment

I. Introduction

The Socio-Economic Assessment of the Rural Works Project (Padat Karya Gaya Baru) is an expansion o2 the Benefits and Beneficiaries section of Evaluation 1977 (December 1977) and was prepared primarily for the Rural Works IT Project Paper. The evaluation data has been supplemented by additional indepth observation of several PKGB subprojects.

A. Background

USAID/ in 1975 began its support of the Padat Karya Gaya Baru (PKGB), labor intensive rural works program, of the Department of Manpower, Ministry of Manpower, Transmigration and Cooperatives. USAID limited this support to 50 subprojects located in 39 rural subdistricts (kecamatan) in five .

The 1977-1978 phase of the Rural Works Project is comprised of 358 subprojects located in 350 subdistricts dispersed over 18 of Indonesia's 27 provinces. Ten of these subprojects are concerned with land terracing and regreening, 100 with irrigation and flood control and 248 with rural roads (See Appendix I). These projects comprise the PKGB regular program as distinct from effective but ad hoc subprojects carried out in response to crisis situation arising from natural disasters and other emergencies which suddenly and drastically affect socio-economic conditions within a given area.

The numbers of regular subprojects planned for Rural Works II are:

IFY No. of Subprojects

1978/1979 480 1979/1980 500 1980/1981 500

Total 1,480 2

As with Rural Works I, Rural Works II will be executed by the Department of Manpower (DMP) headquartered in under the Director General of Manpower Development and Utilization. This project is carried out through a network of Provincial Manpower Offices under each of which are a varying number of Manpower Offices. They, in turn,' are responsible for manpower projects in at least one kabu­ paten and often two or more.

The Project is more decentralized than is immediately apparent since great reliance is placed on officials at the district, subdistrict and even village (desa) levels for the selection and actual execution of a subproject. These officials, for example, include a village development worker (Tenaga Ahli Pedesaan or TAP) from the Department of Manpower who supervises the day-to-day implementation of a subproject. Provincial Manpower Offices have the authority to disapprove applications for subprojects from and subdistricts within their purview. Much cooperative and coordinative activity also occurs at the local levels without continual reference to DMP Jakarta once final approval is given to a subproject.

Because of this reliance on the existent framework at provincial and lower levels, no new organization is necessary to carry out an expanded program. On the other hand, the successful execution of a given subproject depends a great deal on the priority given it by local officials and on their technical and administrative capability to carry out the plan and design approved by DMP/Jakarta. Emphasis in Rural Works II will be placed on qualitative improvement of the selected subprojects rather than an accelerated quantitativeorareal expansion.

B. Methodology and Objectives

This socio-economic assessment is based on the results of an October 1977 field survey of 34 (20%) of the 169 subdistricts in which 1976-1977 subprojects were located and on further first-hand observations of past and present subprojects. The field survey was executed by 24 TAPs provided by the Department of Manpower. Under a stratified sampling plan they covered 18 road subprojects, 14 water (including one reservoir) and two regreening. In percentage terms, these projects represented those found in the 169 subdistricts both in geographical distribution and subproject type.

Approximately 1,200 people were interviewed, the majority in structured situations, and 827 of them were heads-of-household in the beneficiary villages. The remainder were GOI officers of relevant technical depart­ ments, field supervisors of the projects and local government, including 3 village level, officials. Essentially, therefore, this analysis based on primary and empirical is data from 34 subprojects which been extrapolated, as necessary, have only for the 358 in the 1977-1978 phase of the Project. No extrapolations have been made for Rural Works II in specific terms since, except of for qualitative improvement subprojects and in benefits, no drastic departures from Rural Works I are planned for the regular program. Technical and administrative aspects of the subprojects studied by the field teams, were also but this particular assessment focusses only on: a. The socio-cultural context in which the Project is executed. b. The beneficiaries, both direct and indirect, in terms of selected characteristics, location and numbers. c. The Project benefits, both immediate and as spread effects. They are delineated in terms of the subprojects evaluation of the 1976-1977 but it is expected that conclusions directly applicable drawn from them are to Rural Works II despite its careful both in area and in numbers expansion of subprojects. As shown in Appendix no new types of subprojects I, have been added in 1977-1978 nor one subproject been expanded has any beyond the limits already experienced this is the and pattern envisaged for Rural Works II.

II. Socio-Cultural Environment The socio-cultural environment of Indonesia is receptive of the Rural Works Project because of the factors which follow.

A. Strong Supportive Village Structure 1. The Village Headman (Lurah or Kepala Desa) The basic organization through mentioned previously, which this Project works, as is the Department of Manpower which in Jakarta with subsidiary is headquartered offices at least in each relevant the Provincial Manpower Offices province. Under are DMPDistrict Officeslhich cover one kabupatens. In theory, and or more often in actuality, requests for subprojects from the village are channelled through the subdistrict head (camat) to the 4

district head (bupati) who, in turn, makes contact with the Manpower Office. With the formalization of the request through completion of attendant paper work, the Provincial Manpower Office has the authority to disapprove requests while sending forward the approved ones to Jakarta. Normally these requests are discussed at, and across, various levels and technical officers from various departments (Irrigation, Public Works, Agriculture, etc.) at the district level are drawn in. On occasion, initiative may be taken at levels outside the village with strong suggestions passed down the line that a request be made.

Whether passing village requests up or strong outside suggestions down, the key link in the hierarchal chain is the village headman. He reflects and represents village opinion as reached by a consensus of heads of kinship units and other influential people of the village. But he may occasionally have the unenviable task of persuading his villagers to accept an unpopular decision concerning them in which they have not participated or, indeed, may have rejected. In the last analysis his success as a headman depends on the way he satisfies both his supervisors and his villagers and the burden of any scheme directly affecting his village falls on him.

The headman's office is occasionally a large room in his own house, more often it is a separate building which is not infrequently partitioned by bamboo dividers into such areas, labelled in English, as "Conference Room" and "Operation Room" (sic.). He may have a "Data Bank" in which are village social, economic and demograhic records, collected from and by his subordinates who are often a mixture of traditional and modern types: subvillage heads, village secretary, advisor on religious (Islamic) matters, irrigation controller, agricultural officer, planning officer and so on.

2. Decision-making at the village level.

Of the 34 subprojects studied, requests for 23 were initiated at the village level, often originating from a concensus reached at a formal assembly of heads of kinship units (kepala kelompok), influential people (e.g. the professional, modern and traditional; the educated; the good farmer, the elders) and village officials, including officers of the Lembaga Sosial Desa - the Village Social Development Organization. The greater-or-lesser involvement in decision-making by village people in 27 out of the 34 instances is shown below. Furtherrmre, laborers on subprojects are often selected by village officials on the basis of need from registries which identify the poorer of their peoples. In one 5

village in Central , anybody who owned land was excluded from working on a subproject canal.

Table 1: Level on Which Initiative Was Taken for Subproject Request

Level No. of Subprojects

Village 23 Village and subdistrict (lurah and camat) 4 Subdistrict (Camat) 4 Subdistrict and district (camat and bupati) I Province (Planning Office) 1 Other (The Army) 1 34

B. Labor Force

1. Availability of Labor

As indicated previously, labor is under-utilized in Indonesia. At the subproject sites, almost all the laborers were either unemployed or underemployed for at least four to six months out of the year. Daily wages for unskilled labor fluctuated (in 1977), according to season, from a low of Rp. 150 ($0.36) to a high of Rp. 750 ($1.80) in most of Java and from Rp. 300 - Rp. 500 ($0.72 - $1.20)) to Rp. 750 - Rp. 2,000 ($1.80 - $4.80) in various parts of the Outer Islands. The lower daily pay reflects the periods when unemployment is highest.

Tie Rural Works Project is deliberately planned to provide employment during these slack periods and labor is easily recruitable within a maximum distance of 3 km or 4 In of any one subproject.

2. Cultural factors in labor.

There is no cultural prohibition of the mixing of labor force by sex, religion or ethnic background. Indeed, the Indonesian woman is generally accepted as an active and indispensable economic member of her hou:;ehold particularly in terms of agricultural labor, rural trade and enterpreneurship and manufacturing. Language offers no barriers since, if in the rare instance that laborers do not speak a common language, the Indonesianlanguage serves as a lingua franca. 6

3. Attitude Toward Work

No stigma attaches to mitnual labor and there are no cultural prohibitions which limit the range or type of work a person may engage in. The Indonesian man and his wife are capable of, and accept, working at a steady, though not frenetic, pace all day long. A variation on this attitude is the fact that the ownership of an automobile by the rare rich villager is not critized or envied (at least, not outwardly) so long as the car is used for some economic purpose and not merely for pleasure, ostentation and personal convenience.

C. Status Symbol and Values

Ownership of cultivable land, however small a patch, and in par­ ticular its quality as manifested in type of crop or production is an important status symbol invillage society. It marks the owner as an independent land-holder. The formal education of children and the improvement of home and dress, if ostentation is eschewed, are other status symbols, the achievement of which is encouraged by the Project in a number of ways but especially through improved agricultural productivity and expansion of employment opportunities. These relate to another status symbol for the community, that of urbanization with its attendant bustle and air of activity. Projects which help bring an urban ambience to a village, or some semblance of it, are highly welcomed and supported.

D. Attitude Toward Maintenance

Lack of maintenance, particularly in the case of newer subprojects /whose value has not yet been proved, poses some problems. Traditionally, Ti-wever, community property which is clearly perceived as belonging to, or to be the responsibility of the community and not as belonging to an individual or as the responsibility of a higher government level or body is reasonably well maintained. While the execution is perhaps not up to exacting standards, people do rebuild and compact embankments, resurface bad spots in the roads with stones, plant trees (especially fruit trees) to prevent erosion of roadsides and canal banks, clean out canals, and repair or build culverts and watergates.

It is often claimed that this tradition of community self-help, gotong royong, is no longer operative in a modern society based on a cash economy. The term, however, is generic and covers several specific types of mutually cooperative activities some of which can still be invoked for the maintenance of subprojects. III. The Beneficiaries

A. Definition

Beneficiaries were categori' 'd into two broad groups for the sake of simplicity but several typ.;s of direct beneficiaries have been distinguished.

1. Direct Beneficiaries:

a. Workers who were paid for their labor during construction of the subprojects.

b. Members of the immediate families of the workers.

c. Remaining population of the villages (desa) directly affected by the subprojects.

d. People who gained employment through the manufacture and transport of materials for the subprojects, and their families. e. Government officers, officials and supervisors engaged in the subprojects.

2. Indirect Beneficiaries:

Fifty percent (50%) of the remaining populationof the subdistricts in which the subprojects were located were arbitrarily designated as indirect beneficiaries for the reasons given below.

It is recognized that several levels and categories of beneficiaries for exist and the line between them is often tenuous. A case can be made one hand differentiating between actual workers on the subproject on the and, on the other, their dependent families. Similarly, a distinction another who can be made between a man who lives on a subproject road and are irrigated lives 500 meters away, or between a village whose rice fields fields by a canal and another, three or four kilometers away, whose rice by the are protected from flooding through water diversion and dispersal of same canal. Further, there is the occasional man who takes advantage drainage water to start a fishpond or the odd buffalo wallow.,

Experience gained from working on a subproject is not to be negated, construction whether for the laborer whose newly-gained knowledge of culvert or road-crowning is put to use in improving tertiary canals or roads in in his village, or for the official who has learned some lessons 8

responsibility, supervision and management and feels better prepared to take on future development projects.

Cash benefits from a rural road accrue to both the driver of a minibus in , who runs a daily schedule servicing villages on his route, and to his passenger who rides to market, by passing the middle­ man, in order to get 25% to 40% more for his produce. The road also benefits the woman in who has opened a small permanent general shop by the roadside; the woman in North who operates a temporary stand only when her fruits ripen; the woman in whose daily income has more than doubled (from Rp. 75 to Rp. 200) because there is direct access to a market for the special water storage jars she makes, and to the man in who has decided to expand his sugarcane acreage because of better transport facilities to his outlet in Bogor.

A road affects all the villages, and their people, lying along its route and beyond on either side, and many roads, though lying principally in one subdistrict, skirt or even go through rections of another. Thus, short of an extended study both in time and space of each subproject on a case-by-case basis, 50 percent of the populations of the affected subdistricts were arbitrarily designated as indirect beneficiaries.

B. Location

Subprojects are located on the islands of Java, , Sumatra, Bali, , Lombok, Timor, Sumba and Flores for 1977-1978. Whereas, in 1975, 96% of the subprojects were concentrated in Java (with 65% of the total population of Indonesia), the present percentage is 66%. This represents a more equitable distribution of Project benefits in demographic, geographic and socio-economic terms and an expansion of improved income distribution and employment opportunities beyond the bounds of Java. In particular, because of their relative isolation from the mainstream of national development and small size, Lombok, Timor, Sumba ahd Flores are well-populated islands seldom specified in development projects up to the present. The framework for subproject execution, however, is extant in all of them.

C. Ethnic, Linguistic and Religious Affiliations

Despite the areal expansion planned for Rural Works II, because of the relatively small size and specifically localized nature of a subproject it very seldom, if ever, crosses ethnic, religious or language lines. The beneficiaries within a given village and, most 9

often, within a subdistrict tend to be strongly homogeneous. Exceptions may occur in transmigration areas but common need among villagers is a strong uniting force.

This homogeneity generally means that no single ethnic, language or religious group controls land ownership, capital ownership or production systems over another group at any one site. It is true, however, that laborers on subprojects are proportionately less fortunate than their neighbors in this respect. But this is evidence of the fulfilment of one of stated objectives of the Project which is to distribute employment and income benefits to the poorer stratum of rural society.

D. Magnitude

Since official reports of the labor force on the surveyed subprojects are made on a man-day basis, it is difficult to estimate the actual number of workers. A man (or, for that matter, sometimes a woman) might have worked sporadically for a total of 10, 20, or 30 days out of, say, 90 for a given subproject. Or he might have worked every day for the entire period. Based on statements by concerned officials, however, it appears that a minimum total of 17,530 workers were employed on the 34 surveyed subprojects, an average of 515 per subproject and a median of 400. The range was from a low of 150 to a high of T,400 with the mode at 300 (seven or 21% of the sublrojects). The average daily attendance at each subproject was estimated to be 294.

Since the average family size of the workers was 4'.15 persons (as will be shown later), it was estimated that they had 55,220 dependents who were also direct beneficiaries.

Though there was a variation from subdistrict to subdistrict, 33% of their villages as a whole were directly affected by the subprojects. Thus another 500,000 to 600,000 people directly benefitted from rising agricultural and food production, expanded employment and entrepreneurial opportunities, And easier access to markets and health, educational and administrative facilities. To them may be added another 600 or 700 officials and subproject supervisors, representing both GOI technical departments and local government down to the village level, whose managerial and administrative capabilities were enhanced by their field experience, and an unknown number of people who were employed in the manufacture and transport of supplies to subprojects.

It is likely, however, that these last were not inhabitants of the relevant villages, perhaps not even of the relevant subdistricts, though the use of local materials is primarily stressed in the Project. 10

The 34 subdistricts under survey had a total 1,681,000 population of making for an average of 49,500. The 25 subdistricts on Java ranged in population size from 23,700 to 86,900 (average: 45,600) while the range in the Outer Islands was greater (21,100 to 101,600) as was the average (60,200). Since 33% of these have been defined people as direct beneficiaries, about 50 percent of the remainder, some 600,000 qualify as indirect beneficiaries.--These estimates are summarized below and extrapolAted for 1977-1978. (See also Appendix II).

Table 2: Number of Direct and Indirect Beneficiaries

Survey Item Estimates (1977) (1977-1978) Subprojects Subdistricts 34 358 34 350 Subproject laborers 17,530 184,500 Laborers' dependents 55,220 Population 580,000 of Affected Villages 560,000 5,600,000 Officials, etc. 680 7,200 Other direct beneficiaries unknown unknown Indirect beneficiaries 600,000 6.000,000 Total estimated beneficiaries 1,181,000 12,300,000

E. Characteristics

1. They live in the poorer villages of Indonesia

Official ranking was available for 506 out of 526 surveyed villages in terms of economic or developmental status and 163 classified (32%) were as the poorest (miskin sekali) or the least developed village (desa swadaya) according to GOI criteria. An example subdistrict of is the Lendah, the site of a road subproject, which was considered the ninth poorest subdistrict (out of twelve) in the poorest dstrict of the Special Area of Yogyakarta (DIY). The official annual per capita income of people in 1973 was Rp. 12,520 ($30).

The proportion of poor villages in the sample is believed considerably to be higher than the national figure which was not available. Spot checks in three (kabupaten) in Central Java 4%, 12% and 15% indicated that of their respective villages were ranked as the least 11 developed. Further, figures were obtained on 8,466 villages, again in Central Java so that they do not represent a true cross-se.tion of Indonesia, and 581 (6.8%) of them were stated to be "truly minus" economically. (N.L. Kana, "The Village Community and Its Adaption to Outside Influences: A Prospect Based on Research in Central Java," Prisma, Vol. 1, No. 1, Jakarta, 1975, p. 45)

2. They live in the more remote villages of Indonesia

The great majority of the subprojects were located 100-200 km from their respective provincial capitals and, in several instances, the round trip to a subproject took 10-12 hours despite the presence of tarred highways for all but the last few kilometers of the trip. Final access to every one was, at best, over compacted earth or stone­ surfaced roads and they were anywhere from I to 15 km from subdistrict administrative centers.

3. They live in densely populated villages

Village population figures ran from 300 to 1,800 persons per square kilometer, with the more thickly populated villages generally being found in Java. According to the 1971 National Population Census, population densities, including urban centers such as Jakarta with almost 8,000 people per square kilometer, which raises the average, were 565 and 59 for Java and Indonesia respectively. The ratio of man to unit of cultivable land (not necessarily paddy fields) is even more forbidding and easily doubles or triples the village figures given above.

4. The subprolect laborers are among the poorest 'of the rural poor

The following section indicates the relative economic status of subproject laborers vis-a-vis non laborers who live in the same villages The figures should not be taken as typical of Indonesia or any of its regions since they represent the aggregate of a small number of samples from each of 34 subdistricts dispersed over eleven of Indonesia's provinces,

a. Annual per capita income

It is evident that figures for annual per capita income from official sources quickly become absolescent and cannot be taken as absolute for the present year. As mentioned previously, the official figure for Lendah subdistrict, DIY, was $30; but-29households, randomly selected in one of its villages, came up with an estimate of Rp. 24,420 ($59) by their own accounting. This was less than the average of estimates given by the total of 700 households who clearly answered this part of the interview schedule. Even if it were doubled, on the assumption that respondents were less than forthcoming regarding their incomes, it would still fall below the poverty line of $150 set 12

by the World Bank in 1974 and far below the 273 calculated for 1976 by USAID/Indonesia. This latter poverty line takes into consideration inflationary and other factors and, on the same basis, the average annual rural Indonesian per capita income was set at $171.

As a further yardstick for the findings of this report, annual per capita incomes in selected rural areas of West, Central and East Java are stated to be $88, $57 and $92 respectively in a study carried out in 1976 (Han R. Redmana, Hazel Moir and Daliyo, Labor Force and Labor Utilization, LEKNAS,.LIPI, Jakarta, 1977, Vol. 1, p. 59). A study by the University of Indonesia (Prospek Ekonomi Indonesia 1985) puts the average annual per capita income, including urban areas, at $118 for 1974.

The replies of the 700 respondents (representing 2978 individuals) were separated, where possible, into those of laborers and non-laborers. They are both poor but the results, given in Table 3, clearly dpmonstrate that the laborers are the poorer, i.e., the daily wages paid by the Rural Works Projects do go to the neediest.

Table 3: Annual Per Capita Income of the Beneficiaries

Per Capita Income Beneficiaries Households Individuals Rp. US$

Laborers 367 1514 36,264 87 Non-Laborers 306 1356 43,821 106 Both Groups 700 2978 39,540' 95

b. Amount of land owned

Among 450 laborer families, those respondents who claimed to have no land to cultivate (almost everyone owns his house-site and perhaps a tinyyard) or left the answer a blank, amounted to 79 or 17.5%. Among 349 non-laborers, they amounted to 43 or 12.2%. Taking both groups together, the percentage was 15.3%, including a few non­ agricultural households (such as teachers, small traders and shopkeepers, f shermen, etc.). In their sampling, Redmana et al (1977, I, p.41) found that 13% of agricultural households had no land of their own.

The estimates of amount of land cultivated per capita by land-owning households was clouded by three factors: (i) the tendency among landowners, especially in and among non-laborers, to give their answer in numbers of trees (cloves in particular) rather than in extent of land, (ii) the use of local land 13

measurements which had to be converted into hectares, and (iii) some skewing resulting from the greater representation in the sample of responses from the Outer Islands where individual land holdings are generally more extensive than in Java*. What remains clear, however, is that the laborers own less land than their neighbors.

Table 4: Amount of Land Per Capita Cultivated by Beneficiary Households

Cultivates land Land cultivated per Beneficiaries (% of households) capita of cultivators (ha)

Laborers 82.5 0.218 Non-Laborers 87.8 0.281

c. Family Size and Occupations

A significant difference arose between laborers and non­ laborers in the incidence of a single man living alone as a household unit. These cases amounted to 44 or 9.8% of laborer households and 13 or 3.7% of non-laborer. The vast majority of them were unmarried men in their early twenties who were either landless or with a very small patch to cultivate. Their main source of income was labor - in rice fields and in other agricultural activities, cutting timber (), crewing fishing boats (), picking cloves (North Sulawesi), and performing odd jobs. Their presence reduces the average family size of laborers to 4.15 persons and of non-laborers to 4.37.

Elimination of these single-member households makes family size virtually even: 4.48 (laborers) and 4.50 (non-laborers).

The predominant family composition among the laborers was that of a young couple with two children and possibly a third or an elderly parr it. Occupationally they were agriculturists but only in the sense tlLat they subsisted by supplementing through agricultural labor (buruhtani) whatever livelihood they wrested from their small farms. In almost every instance both the man and the wife worked, as did most children over 13 or 14 years of age. The amount of time spent in their

* Percentage of agricultural households owning over I ha: Java : 6.0% (Redmana et al, 1977, I, p. 42) Indonesia : 29.7% (Agricultural Census, 1973) 14

fields varied with the season, the occurrence of employment op­ portunities and the size of the plot. Thus a whole family might work on their own plot but the husband (or the wife or an older child) could be released at almost any time to take a job which would bring in cash. In general, it was the husband who sought laboring jobs whether tilling somebody else's land, as a fisherman at sea, in construction, sawing timber or driving a pedicab (which he rents from an enterpreneur at a daily rate). There were some reversals of role where the man worked his fields while his wife took an agricultural laboring jobs or even operated a small stand or business.

But what emerges clearly is that virtually no laborer family can depend on a single source of income or on the sole efforts of one member of the family. This conclusion is supported by the study of labor utilization in Java, previously mentioned (Redmana et al, 1977), whose tables show that only 11.3% of their rural male respondents, aged 20-59, are adequately utilized enough to support through their sole efforts an "average-sized" family. For women, the percentage is 3.8%.

IV. Direct Social Consequence and Benefit Incidence

A. Direct Cash Benefit

Because of the difficulty in estimating the exact number of laborers on the 34 subprojects and the length of time worked by each, it was also difficult to estimate their cash earnings specifically. For 22 subprojects the daily wage was Rp. 150 ($0.36) and for the remaining twelve the rate was Rp. 200 ($0.48). But whichever the sum, it constituted, depending on the area, from 40% to 100% of the minimum prevailing daily wage in that area for unskilled labor in the off-season. This is shown in the following table: 15

Table 5: PKGB Daily Wage as a Percent of Minimum Prevailing Daily Wages by Geographical Area

' Prevailing No. of ' Daily Wage (Rp)' ' PKGB as Sub- ' Season Range* ' PKGB ' % of Area ' District' Min Max ' Rate (Rp) Min.

Java excluding West Java 18 150 750 150 100

Bali and Nusatenggara Barat 2 150 300 150 100

West Java 7 300 750 200 66

Sumatra 4 300 1,000 200 66

South Sulawesi 2 300 750 150 50

North Sulawesi 1 500 2,000 200 40

* Wage information based on interviews with local officials.

Assuming a labor force of 17,530 on the 34 subprojects and a reported expenditure of about Rp. 260 million in wages (94% of the authorized expenditure for wages) and an equal distribution of pay, each worker would have received Rp. 14,800 ($36). Taking into account, however, the variation in daily rate of pay and the great variation in length of time worked on a subproject (occasionally only for four or five days), it is clear that the range in total wages earned is wide. Since the vast majority of the 450 laborers interviewed put in at least 20 days, it may run from a maximum average low of Rp. 3,000 ($7), on a subproject in Central Java at Rp. 150/day, to a maximum average high of Rp. 36,000 ($87) in Sumatra and North Sulawesi where a number of men claimed to have worked 180 days at Rp. 200/day. In East Java, where similar claims were made, the maximum at Rp. 150/day would have been Rp. 27,000 ($65). Despite some vague replies,.it is estimated that these same respondents averaged 80 days on the job. Thus, at Rp. 150/day, the average sum earned is Rp. 12,000 ($29) and at Rp. 200/day, Rp. 16,000 ($38.50). 16

These estimates must be assessed in the context of annual per capita incomes given previously and with regard to the fact that the average sum earned will provide food and basic amenities for a rural family of five for one month in Java. This is based on an estimate of 20 kg rice equivalent per capita per month as the minimum adequate income for an individual (Sajogyo, Usaha Perbaikan Giz Keluarga, Institut Pertanian Bogor, Bogor, 1975 pp. 60-62). As has been mentioned previously, the laborers are often selected from among the neediest by the village officials themselves and their earning are, in fact, spent only on two items: food, primarily, and clothing. Thus whatever the sum it helped marginal rural house­ holds through periods of seasonal unemployment and under-employment and gave the subsistence farmer an edge on survival.

Current (1977-1978) rates have been set at Rp. 250 ($0.60) and Rp. 300 ($0.72) per day, a more realistic adjustment of wages in light of the average, not minimum, daily rate of pay for unskilled labor. It is expected that there may be further readjustments during Rural Works II to keep pace with possible inflationary trends.

B. Rise in Agricultural Production and Income

Water control subprojects are separately considered in the following sec.:ions since, in general, they result in more immediate and observable economic effects than do those of physical accessi­ bility and land conservation.

Among the 34 subprojects there were 13 concerned with canals for irrigation and/or flood control. These, despite one failure, directly and positively affected an estimated 1,300 ha. of cultivated or cultivatable land. Flooding was controlled, through water diversion and dispersal, on another 1,600 ha. in surrounding areas, including in a few cases, sections of adjacent subdistricts. At least 75 ha. of fishponds were created or improved, principally in South Sulawesi and one subdistrict in East Java. If all these canal subprojects were brought into full operation, extended slightly or improved to take a greater volume of water, another 3,000 ha. would probably benefit.

Rise in agricultural income is most clearly and iimediately evident in their case because the provision of adequate and controlled water permits:

a) cultivation of hitherto uncultivated land; 17

b). double cropping on single crop land;

c) increase in yield per hectare; or d) creation of fishponds.

Table 6 illustrates the rise in gross agricultural income in the subdistricts affected by canals, comparing official before figures both and after the subprojects, and the increase in crop production. It should be stressed that the investment in these canals of Rp. 130 million ($313,250), of which 83% was paid to the subproject was more laborers, than recoverable within a year through increased agricultural production. Moreover, judging by the small size of average land­ holding in the affected areas (nine of the 13 subprojects are on Java) at least one household per hectare, and possibly two directly or more, benefitted from increased agricultural productivity and income where it occured.

Table 6: Estimated Rise in Agricultural Income and Production by Crop Before and After the Subprojects in Areas Directly Affected by Canals*

Increase in Gross Income (Rp. million) Increase Crop in net Before After production (metric tons) Paddy (unhusked) 356.5 590.5** 3434 (rice, not paddy)i** Potato 35.7 44.1 70 Maize 31.5 54.0 90 Cabbage 13.8 28.0 705 Soybean 9.7 26.1 87 Fish (fishpond) nil 13.3 50 Green pea 1.5 1.5 Unchanged Sweet potato 3.8 2.7 Loss of 180 tons - sweet potato acreage transferred TOTALS 452.5 760.2 to paddy Sources * are subdistricts official records and estimates. No weighting has been given prices for inflation. ** Returns not yet available for one paddy subproject therefore these figures will increase. Previous income is included in the "Before" column. 18

C. Rise in Food Production

The increase of 3,434 metric tons of rice (not unhusked paddy), noted above, will provide food and some basic amenities for 14,300 people for one year (at 20 kg/person/month). The return from one extensive canal subproject are not yet in but it affectes fields which previously produced 2,330 tons of paddy. It was expected that production would double on 150 ha. (an increase of 525 tons of rice) and possibly improve the yield on a single crop on another 500 ha (possibly another 200 - 250 tons). If all expectations are fulfilled, another 2,500 - 3,000 people will be provided food for one year.

The increase in the remaining crops, if translated into rice equivalent in terms of cash without consideration of their nutritional value, will provide food for a further 1,400 people.

D. Increase in Agricultural Employment

Agricultural employment opportunities have increased, on ten canal subprojects for which these figures were available, from 1.5 million mandays before the subprojects to 2.4 million after, an increase of 60%. In a village in Central Java a headman claimed his villagers would now be employed the year around instead of only six months as before. In an East Java village, where 150 ha. has been newly brought under cultivation with a double crop of paddy expected per annum and a single crop of mixed items such as soybeans and peanuts, the headman estimated conservatively that one crop of paddy on one hectare would need 14 mandays for planting and 20 for harvesting. He could not estimate the mandays needed for the third crop.

An extrapolation of the 60% increase in mandays to the 100 canals of the 1977-1978 program would mean, in absolute numbers, 90,000,000 mandays of additional employment created.

E. Direct Benefits from Road Subprojects

1. Background

Since economic benefits resulting from roads are less immediately apparent than those resulting from canals, they will be outlined in this following section. The 18 road subprojects surveyed totalled 127 km and, in generallinked more remote villages with 19 secondary roads or highways that connected with the subdistricts centers. Because some of the roads consisted of two separate units or because they forked, they are discussed here as 23 separate entities.

An indicator of their utilization and benefits is the increase in traffic. All roads were open to foot traffic before the subprojects were started (even new roads tend to follow the general course of narrow foot trails) and most to bicycles; thus conside­ ration has been given to the increase in the number of motorized vehicles per day.

Table 7: Rise in Motor Vehicle Usage of Roads

Number of Vehicle Per Day Vehicle Type Before After

Motorcycle 210 1340 Jeep, Minibus, Van etc. 20 230 Truck 4 60

2. Increase in Production and Income

While an increase in agricultural and other production, with a resultant rise in income, was reported to have occured due to the stimulus of new or rehabilitated roads, its extent is unknown. Rise in income to producers was reported not only because of direct, relatively rapid and regular access to and from market but also because of the bypassing of the middleman and a decrease in prices of goods available in the villages. Thus the following examples are but mere hints of more widespread economic benefits.

a. In at least two West Java village ., pineapples have increased in price from Rp. 50 each to Rp. 200 because of accessibility to market.

b. Along one road in East Java, producers are getting 25% - 40% more for their produce because they no longer have to depend on a middleman; and, contrariwise, manufactured goods have become available for the same reason with a similar decrease in prices. 20

c. In a number of subdistricts more produce is reaching the market because producers living away from the road can now walk or bicycle to a collecting point with their loads of vegetable, kapok, coconuts, and bananas. Regular pick-up service has been instituted by trucks, vans and minibuses, including one instance of a regular pick-up of livestock (beef cattle).

d. The daily income of the women of two East Java villages has increased because accessibility to market has raised the demand for the water storage jars they manufacture (from clay unique to their area). Previously, these sold at an average of Rp. 15 each; now they average Rp. 40 a piece. Women in almost every household are working full-time, producing five medium-sized jars a day or ten larger (more expensive and capable of holding at least 35 liters of water) in three days. (The method used is coil, the temper is sand and the firing is in a hot straw fire for one hour).

3. Increased Contact Between Village and Government

Not only do roads permit government officials, both technical and administrative, to keep in closer and more regular touch with village leaders and villagers but their response to emergency situations (floods, fires, crop infestation, epidemies, etc.) is facilitated. Furthermore, the subproject in itself, especially if notably successful, is a medium of communication between the two groups, overcoming a sense of neglect or isolation which some villages have felt in the padt.

4. Access to Medical Facilities

More-and-more people are making use of modern health facilities, consulting doctors and medical personnel in government health centers in nearby towns or larger villages, because they have become more accessible. It was claimed in several places that less dependence than heretofore was being placed on traditional curers. Also, along new roads in at least three subdistricts, medical personnel, especially nurses, can and do pay home visits to very sick patients instead of having them brought to the health center on litters. I. ine subdistrict there was even talk of instituting a regular weekly or bi-monthly round of villages by nurses.

F. Direct Benefits Arising From an Interaction of Factors

1. Encouragement of Entrepreneurship

Increased production resulting from the-subproject, whether directly or indirectly, and leading to some capital formation, a greater 21 flow of cash into and within a given area, and accessibility are among the casual factors for an increase in entrepreneurship. Again, these ,effects are noticeable only as hints.

a. A market which, because of increasing poverty in the area, had been closed for several years in Central Java village has reopened and in flourishing.

b. In the space of twelve months, ten small shop§and stalls have opened along a 5-km stretch of road in Bali. A few of them carry a limited inventory of such luxury items as tooth-brushes, soft drinks, biscuits and kerosene pressure lamps.

c. The rise in daily transactions mentioned by a number of shops in several places can be perhaps typififedby the increase in sale of rice in an East Java village. There, several grain shops sold a total of 100 kg of rice a week in the past. Total sales have now risen to 600 kg.

d. The transportation business has been enhanced by the opening of roads and they include minibus service (often on a scheduled basis either daily or several times a week), truck haulage for produce, livestock and building material, and a general rise in the incidence of short hauls by horse carts, padi-cabs and even by bicycle and on foot.

2. Rise in Land Values in Villages Affected by Suprojects

According to statements made by respondents, land values have risen in general by over 50% in villages reached by the subprojects, particularly for those plots directly affected or touched by a road or canal. Absolute figures, however, were difficult to obtain but an example from a Central Java village may be illustrative: land there has increased in value from Rp. 250 ($0.60) per square meter to Rp. 350 ($0.84) when a canal subproject was recently completed, a 40% rise which will probably go higher. In other areas, with subprojects still incomplete, land values have already risen by 10% - 20%.

There appears to be no speculation in land as villa~ers express great reluctance to sell. To be an independent landowner, even of a small patch, carries high social value. What is important to them is not that the land has accrued in monetary value but that its productivity has increased and that the land is considered to be good land by the other villagers. 22

3. Improvement in the Quality of Village Life

The quality of village life has improved in a number of subtle ways, often not immediately apparent except to their residents. Better homes are being built and better maintenance is kept of them, not only because of relative prosperity and wider distribution of income, but because the chronic threat of flood damage to homes has been largely dissipated by the construction of canals. In several places the "arisan" system of rotating credit has been revived or strengthened so that people are enabled cooperatively to build better homes.

People see and learn new things because of exposure to relatively urbanized centers (the market town or the subdistrict center). On a somewhat trivial level, they are willing to invest a little more in clothing, partly because of outside example, more because mini-buses offer more protection to their clothes and footgear than a journey on foot. On another level, more children have been enabled to attend secondary school (which are found usually only in centrally located larger villages) because improved roads have shortened the journey, generally by bicycle, and because their parents can better afford school fees. Easier access to medical facilities has already been mentioned as has the putting within reach, both literally and financially, of the villages of certain town and basic goods. Con­ versely of course, middlemen may take advantage of this easier access but the villagers now have, at least, an option which did not exist before.

4. Beneficial Effect on Seasonal Migration of Men

Not the least of the improvements of the quality of life of a village is the fact that an imbalance in the proportion of males to females may be negated. Though its full effects in social or local political terms may not be felt (or noticed) for sometime, subprojects have served to inhibit the seasonal migration of men from a village seeking employment. In a few cases, such migrations have been virtually halted because of increased employment and income opportunities at home. Even when new roads provide easier access to other areas, the prime motivation for seasonal migration is economic, not easier means of transport.

That a problem of unequal sex distribution already exists in rural areas is indicated by the fact that in 33 out of 34 subdistricts studied there were more females than males. The imbalance was generally 23 more marked in Java subdistricts than in those of the Outer Islands. The sole exception, for example, was in a subdistrict in North Sumatra where the ratio was: 100 females to 102 males. Otherwise, there was an average of 100 females to 94 or 95 males, with a range from 85 to 98. If, additionally, more males leave, and they would obviously be comprised of the younger, the more able-bodied or the more enterprising, even on a temporary basis for four to six months of the year. it can be predicted that their absence will retard socio-economic development and be deleterious to community life, with an undue amount of burden and responsibility in terms of both community and family life placed on the women who stay behind. Perhaps one of the most important spread effects of this program is that it will permit more men to work at home and actively participate in their own village affairs, thus helping to break a stagnant and static situation.

5. Experience Gained On the Subproject As a Direct Benefit

Subproject workers have put their experience to good use, particularly in the case of those who have become semi-skilled, on the construction of tertiary canals and village roads. In other words they have become more employable and in a few instances they do get paid by a particular village for this work. More usually, however, they work voluntarily and are often asked to deal with such technical aspects as the crowning of roads, impacting and surfacing of embankments, buttressing, mixing of cement, construction or repair of culverts and watergates, building of public latrines and so on. Their efforts also act as a slow catalyst for other villages to improve their villages physically because they are tangible and visible evidence of change for the better.

Some mention must be made of the officials and supervisors, relatively few in number, who were involved in subprojects. Many have stated that they learned what responsibility was and how to cope with problems. They appear to have gained more confidence in their ability to perform their duties and the subprojects have been an informal but effective education for them.

6. The Subproject asa.Catalyst for Development

Disregarding the encouragement of private enterprise and entrepreneurship, there are two further aspects to the catalytic effect of a subproject. One is the spurring of supplementary and complementary development schemes and programs by GOI entities and by the villagers. Among them are such as the building of a new primary school next to the new road by INPRES in Bali, the construction of tertiary canals to link 24

with the subproject canal in Central Java, the linkage planned by district authorities of the subproject canal with the district canal in South Sulawesi, and the repair by a subdistrict head in Central Java of a bridge on a subproject road to permit its fuller use. Such examples abound at the sites.

The other aspect is the inducement of cooperation, joint planning and execution of schemes among villagers, among the personnel of GOI technical departments, between villagers and subdistrict officials (and even of higher levels), and among peoples who were essentially strangers to one another in the past. A prime example in the 1977-1978 Program is that of a canal in Central Java which necessitates the installation of a pump (a gift from the President of Indonesia) in the Bengawan Solo River, the digging of a 3 km canal by PKGB, including the laying of some underground pipes, and the rehabilitation of 350 meters of canal by the !NPRES Program. Villagers from several villages mingle with goverrnmnt officials from several departments in the execution of the three phases of this subproject.

Moreover, the success of one subproject has a further chain reaction in that other villages feel encouraged to initiate their own requests for similar aid in development schemes.

G. Attitudinal Changes in a Traditional Society

Implicit in some of the foregoing sections was the effect of the Program in bringing about attitudinal changes in a traditional society or in the encouragement of activities that bring them about; for example the exposure to more developed communities, the bypassing of the middleman or the easier access of children to secondary schools (which will affect the attitudes of a new generation).

There are, however, three especially significant attitudinal changes which cannot be over-rated.

1. The feeling of security and rationality induced by access to modern medical facilities in a traditional society which previously ascribed illness to supernatural causes.

2. The feeling of control of the environment induced by the availability of adequate and controlled water in a rice-growing society whose major rhythms of life are dictated by climate and weather. 25

3. The subtle changes toward planning which are induced not only by explicit planning for projects (in which the villagers would like a greater voice) but by regularity of transport service along roads, control of water, and the presence of more manpower in the villages. A traditionaly society is, perhaps unconsciously, beginning to look ahead, a first step toward true modernization.

V. Conclusion: Follow-On Contacts

Indirect and direct benefits of the Project have inevitably become interwined in the foregoing report because of its strong ripple and mutiplier effects. The point that 5hitProject has built up a-qutckenedmomentu--of its own can best bedderscoredby hree illustrations from East Java.

A. Of an unknown number of requests for subprojects originating at the village level, 2601o-d-eventuem y-i{achedthe Provincial Office of the Department of Manpower in Surabaya (East Java). Funds were available to execute only 83 of them.

B. The head (camat) of one subdistrict on the slopes of range of mountains has travelled all along a subproject road, a former foot-trail, and beyond (for four days on foot from the end of the road to the farthest village) in order to persuade people to move in closer to the road. He hopes the road can be extended, but the slopes are quite steeply pitched beyond the end of the road.

C. While a formal request for a subproject road'was being processed, the inhabitants from several villages voluntarily built a levee to protect the expected road. With the granting of the request, one area which became accessible was turned into the site of a land terracing and regreeening scheme.

It is expected that this momentum will con xueinRuralJ-iorks 11. In fact, a limit has had. to be del-iberateli--placed on the number of PKGB subprojects to be carried out in Repelita III in order to permit selection/construction of higher quality subprojects which promote economic activity and assist the rural poor,

Ferdinand E. Okada March 1978 26

Appendix I

Identification of PKGB SubproLect Provinces and Distribution of Subprojects by Type IFY 1977/78

No. of sub- Type of Subproject Subproject Province districts Road Canal Regreen. Total (7 Daerah Istimewa Acch 7 7 North - - 7 ( 2.0) Sumatra 22 18 4 West Snmatra ­ 22 ( 6.1) 9 9 - - 9 (2.5) 4 1 1 2 4 (1.1) Bengknlu 2 2 ­ - 2 (0.5) ampung 9 6 3 9 2.5) South Sumatra1 ) 11 - ( 3.1) West Java 71 44 29 'Central Java - 73 ( 20.4) 71 51 19 1 71 ( 20.0) Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta 8 2 8 - - 8 ( 2.2) East Java ) 83 42 41 5 88 ( 24.6) Bali3 ) 7 7 - - 7 (2.0) West Nusatenggara (Lombok) 7 7 - 7 2.0) East Nusatenggara (Timor) 3 3 - - 3 ( 0.8) (FloreE) 3 1 - 2 3 ( 0.8) (Smha) 2 2 - - 2 ( 0.5)

South Ialimantan 6 6 -( 1.7) North Sulnwesi 4 ) 6 6 - . 6 (1.7) 2 2 ­ - South Sulawesi 2 ( 0.5) 17 15 3 - 18 ( 5.0)

Totals 350 248 100 10 358 (100.0)

1) Includes Belitung rs. 2) Including 10 subprojects on Madura and one off-shore island. 3) Includes Nusa Penida Island 4) Tncludes 2 small off-shore islands. Appendix IT 27

Average Population Size and Population Density of PITB Subdistricts (Kecamatan) by Relevant Province. 1975*

Subdistrict No. in Total no. in Av. size Av.size of Pop.density Province Project (77/78) Province (km2) population per km2 Daerah Istimewa 7 129 North Sumatra 429 17,700 41 22 178 397 42,200 W.est S,,ntatra 106 9 80 622 Jambi 39,600 64 4 37 1,214 Rengku 30,800 25 lu 2 23 920 25,600 28 9 70 476 45,000 95 ii 78 1,329 50,100 38 West Java 71 386 120 61,000 508 Central Java 71 492 69 48,300 700 Daerah Tstimewa Yogyakarta" 8 74 43 46,600 East .Java 1,084 83 544 88 51,000 580 Bali 7 50 ill 47,400 427 West iqusatenggara 7 56 360 44,000 122 East Nusatenggara 8 97 493 26,500 54 6 87 433 21,900 51 North S;ulawesi 6 81 235 23,800 Central Sulawesi 101 2 61 1,143 16,800 Sc'u th Sulawesi 15 17 169 431 34,400 80

INDONESIA 350 2,692 586 40,640 70

*Based on figures from the Department of Health, Population estimates have been rounded Out.