Structural barriers and governance factors block Indonesian getting identity documents — but there are solutions

 

This article is the second of four articles in the series on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) in Indonesia entitled “Data that Records and Protects All”.

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One in four Indonesian families with children under five years old is at risk of being unable to access various basic services because they lack civil registration documents.

Among them is Bunga (not her real name), a 20-year-old mother of a two-year-old in South Sulawesi province – located on the third-most-populated island in Indonesia.

Because she doesn’t have a family card, Bunga and her child might be left off the list of citizens eligible for social aid – either cash or food assistance – which the government provides for economically vulnerable people during a disaster, including the pandemic.

Many would think the solution to Bunga’s problem is simple: she just needs to apply for the documents.

But our research at the Center on Child Protection and Wellbeing, University of Indonesia (PUSKAPA), shows Indonesians without identity documents don’t necessarily lack motivation to apply. Instead, the problem is structural barriers to getting the documents.

Our 2016 research shows those barriers are related to social and economic factors, or to the civil registration process itself.

This article will discuss our findings, related research, and what can be done to overcome these barriers.

What are the barriers to access?

PUSKAPA developed a conceptual framework to understand and identify structural problems within the public service, civil registration included.

We identified three layers of structural barriers that individuals face when dealing with the civil registration service.

The first is when individuals lack access due to poverty, remoteness and immobility.

The second layer is when individuals deal with services that are unresponsive to their special needs or situations.

The last layer is when individuals experience discrimination due to their social identities, such as gender, religion, ethnicity, and so on. A citizen can face multiple barriers

Poverty is still a major factor

Poverty restricts Indonesians’ access to identity documents.

Children from poorer families are less likely to have a birth certificate than children from better-off families.

Indonesia’s 2016 National Socio-Economic Survey (SUSENAS) found the main reason respondents gave (34%) for not having a birth certificate was that they could not afford the cost. Unfortunately, more updated data are not available because the survey no longer asks this question.

Identity documents are issued for free, but in the process Indonesians still have to spend money, such as for transportation, documenting photocopies and stamp duties.

Long distances, lack of public transportation and bad roads make it more difficult for citizens to go to their local civil registration office.

PUSKAPA research in 2016 found people in Petungkriyono district in Pekalongan regency, Central Java province – located on Indonesia’s main and most populated island of Java – need two hours to go to the regency capital. On average they pay Rp 100,000 (about US$7) for a one-way trip.

That is a considerable cost to bear considering Pekalongan’s poor population spends an average per head of Rp 500,000 a month (about US$35).

The cost of that trip would be bigger if we count the potential daily income they lose while getting the documents.

Multidimensional vulnerability, not only poverty

Apart from the barriers of cost and distance, a number of Indonesians face unresponsive services.

The national survey found the second major reason respondents didn’t have birth certificates is because their other documents weren’t yet issued.

In Bunga’s case, she cannot get a birth certificate for her child that states the father’s name because her marriage was not registered.

As an Indonesian Muslim, Bunga needs to go to the religious court to legalise her marriage first. Only then will she be able to get a marriage certificate from the Religious Affairs Office

Now that Bunga’s husband is missing, appealing for marriage legalisation can become more complicated. Alternatively, she can apply for a statutory declaration letter provided that her marriage status is recorded on a family card, which she doesn’t have.