On The Issue Of Gender Equality, SWGI Asks The Government To Prioritize Action Instead Of Showing Data

Illustration of gender equality. (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The Association of Indonesian Women, Gender and Children Study Centers (ASWGI) asked the government to prioritize action rather than showing data in the form of quantitative figures to solve the problem of gender equality in the country.

This was stated by ASWGI Chair Emy Susanti in the Webinar 'Breaking Bias and Realizing Gender Equality' which was followed online in Jakarta, Tuesday 8 March.

"We are worried that it will happen again with policies that do not eliminate gender equality, but instead deepen this problem," said Emy.

Emy said that the policies made by the government are still very quantitative. Such as using data on sexual violence issued by the National Commission for Women (Komnas) in the form of numbers and showing concern and dire conditions.

In fact, to uncover the root causes of gender equality, research or studies are needed that can analyze the reality behind these figures. Because the issue of gender equality is an interactional issue related to various other social inclusion issues in it.

This is because there are data that cannot be seen by the public, such as hidden power in gender inequality, unequal power relations, marginalization of women's thinking. Including the issue of child marriage which includes reproductive health issues, child exploitation and so on.

“We really have to dismantle that bias by deconstructing, reversing thinking so that it is not biased towards gender equality by researching. We believe that gender issues cannot stand alone," said Emy, quoted from Antara.

According to Emy, in order to solve the problem of gender equality, his party uses a qualitative method, namely participatory action research and makes the object of research also involved as a subject.

The methodology is considered to be able to capture the root of the problem from upstream to downstream which will later help the government to make policies that can fulfill the rights of each gender or vulnerable groups.

"So it will be revealed what really happened, not just numbers, not just so much violence, then this policy is made, that policy. If we don't go there, if we don't touch the roots behind it, it can't be solved," he said.

Director of Family, Women, Children, Youth and Sports at the Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas Woro Srihastuti Sulistyaningrum said that although the state has disaggregated data in the form of numbers, these data cannot clarify what is actually happening in a social issue.

Woro gave an example that the rate of decline in the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in Indonesia has only touched 2.2 percent per year, while the government hopes that the figure can be 5 percent per year.

However, from that figure, it is not possible to know other factors that caused the mother's death. Many data say that this factor comes from the health side, whereas in fact it is possible that factors also come from the household such as violence, unequal division of roles or parenting influenced by a culture.

If the data held are in the form of written studies, Woro feels that the data will open up the perspective of the state to explore what is happening and influence the emergence of gender equality issues as well as ward off bias or stigma in society.

“We have to open perspectives, not just talk about numbers, but we have to explore what's behind the numbers. This will sharpen us to develop various programs after the intervention is carried out. This is one form of acceleration in our efforts to achieve development targets," he said.