Conditions in Indonesia (Morning Bulletin, 1 Jun 1954)

Morning Bulletin (1954-06-01) - Conditions In Indonesia Source: Trove, National Library of Australia - https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57320719 Date retrieved: 2026-10-17 OCR text (uncorrected) follows. 01 Jun 1954 - CONDITIONS IN INDONESIA Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld.: 1878 - 1965), Tuesday 1 June 1954, page 9 CONDITIONS IN IINDONESIAConditions under which In-donesian women lived and theefforts being made to alleviate those conditions were outlined!to members of the Rockhamp-j ton branch of the Union of jAustralian Women by the Vic-torian branch president (Mrs Allison Dickie) at the Red Cross rooms on Saturdayafternoon.Mrs Dickie is returning to Melbourne after attending, as an Australian observer, a con-ference of Indonesian women at Djarkarta, at which there were 360 delegates representing 60,000 women from many ofthe islands.She said that sex equality was written into the provision-al constitution of the Indon-esian Republic, women thus having equal opportunity and recognition and receiving equal pay for equal work. In all fac-tories visited these conditions prevailed, but most of the workers received sub-standard wage In some factories mothers were allowed one month off work before and. one month after their babies' births and one week's holiday per year. In other factories there were no privileges or holidays.Men and women, however, were learning to work together for the benefit of all and much should be achieved in the near future to raise the standard of living of the masses. Next month they will nave the ex-perience of voting at the re-public's first general election. The Indonesians were a virilerace, with a strong determin-ation to retain the independ-ence they had won, but at the same time were willing to co-operate with all people throughout the world to achieve peace and goodwill.A significant feature of the conference was the presence of Dutch delegates, as represen-tatives from Holland of the Women's international Demo-cratic Federation which has 133,000,000 members through-out the world.PEASANT UFEMrs Dickie said she was given an opportunity of see-ing the conditions under which the peasant women of Java lived. These women had to work daily in the fields and, if their children were very young,had to take their whole fam-ily with them. They had to walk barefooted over stony paths, sometimes for a dist-ance of two miles, to their places of work. It was in this area, too, that she witnessed¡young girls aged 12 and 13, as ¡well as women of all ages, carrying on their backs loads of wood so heavy that their backs were almost parallel with the ground. Since her re-turn to Australia, she said, shehad often been asked what the average span of life of.these women was, but unfortunately she had not been able to find the answer.Mrs Dickie said it was among this class of people that the Moslem marriage law, recognised by the Government and entitling a man to more than one wife, was most fre-quently observed. The Indon-esians were in the main of Moslems, although some of the islands were now strongly in-fluenced by Christianity and to some extent the Western mode of dress and way of life. Indonesian women were lead-ing the struggle against this law, demanding its repeal. There was also growing dis-content and some action from women's organisations over the question of child mar-riages. Mrs Dickie told of one instance where she met a 12year-old girl who had already been married twice.In these peasant areas, she added, education was almost nil, although illiteracy throughout the country had been reduced from 90 per cent to about 52 per cent since In-donesian independence was established. In other areas students attended the all-toofew schools in shifts during the day, so that the greatest number could have instruc-tion. The women's organisations had received great assistance from the trade union move-ment The conference itselfwas held in a "hall belonging to the railway unions and there were 1500 men and women present at the opening session of the conference at which the foreign delegates were welcomed. Discussion at the conference revealed that the women of indonesia want-ed friendship with the women of Australia, and wished to further strengthen the bonds of friendship already made through the Copenhagen con-ference and their own con-ference.