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Dadah - Sarimukti Village, Indonesia
Name: Dadah
Location: Sarimukti Village, Indonesia
Biography:
The subject of our shoot is Dadah [who goes by one name only, as do many Indonesians], a 32-year-old occasional farm worker from the village of Sarimukti, in the highlands of Pasirwangi Subdistrict, Garut Regency, West Java. Sarimukti Village is about 2.5 hours’ drive from the city of Bandung, West Java, or about 5 hours’ drive from Jakarta. Dadah is a Sarimukti native who married in her teens. She lives in her own home (though the plot of land it is on belongs to someone else) with her 3 sons – Andi Ristandi, Kamal Nuridja, and Sulaiman, aged 13, 9, and 4 years old - and husband Igud, also a farm worker. The state-owned plantation company farm on which they work is high in the hills, cultivating on a rotating basis such crops as cabbages, carrots, potatoes and tobacco. They also plant onions and red beans. The family earns an average of about Rp 895,833 (or USD 91.45) a month.
Khadijah and her family members are practising Muslims. Sarimukti has been undergoing significant social changes, due in part to the work of the MTS Assururon Farmers’ School, which has been advocating for children’s education.
Whereas in 2003, most families married off their children in their teens or put them to work, today such cases are in the minority, and most children are sent to the Farmers’ School. Despite such positive changes, Sarimukti residents continue to face daily problems related to the land ownership situation, where 85% of farm workers do not own their own land. This plantation system has been in place since Dutch colonial days. The workers are part of the Pasundan Farmers’ Union, which lobbies for land to be distributed among farmers. Khadijah and her husband are both active in the union. Their community is Sundanese and speaks the Sundanese language, with occasional use of Bahasa Indonesia, particularly in formal (such as school) settings.
Shoot date: Monday, October 27, 2008
Watch a short clip of Dadah's life:
Video (04:55) | Photos | Crew Statement
