When Female Ojol Drivers Learn Self-Defense

Since a year ago, the East Java Provincial Government, through the Women's Empowerment, Child Protection and Population Agency (DP3AK), initiated the Women's Motorcycle Taxi Online (Gaspol) Movement, one of which is through self-defense training.

To train self-defense for women motorcycle taxi drivers, DP3AK East Java is collaborating with the Indonesian Ju Jitsu Institute. In the city of Surabaya, jujitsu martial arts training is carried out in one of the rooms at the office of the Technical Implementation Unit for the Protection of Women and Children (UPTD PPA) on Jalan Raya Arjuno 88, Surabaya.

At the office, dozens of female online motorcycle taxi drivers come to train in martial arts every week, specifically jujitsu. They are equipped with basic martial arts knowledge by three jujitsu trainers, namely Sabdo Sahono, Jaya Ariwibowo, and Don Iskandar. Currently, there are around 30 dedicated female online motorcycle taxi drivers who train in self-defense.

"We provide practical, simple yet effective martial arts training. In addition to barehanded techniques, we also equip them with ways to defend themselves using simple weapons, such as a pen or helmet," said Sabdo, a jujitsu trainer, on Wednesday afternoon (April 27, 2024).

That day, dozens of female motorcycle taxi drivers in the city of Surabaya were practicing jujitsu martial arts. They also welcomed the Child Friendly City Initiative (CFCI) Unicef team, led by Shema Sen Gupta, Director of the Child Protection Section Unicef ​​Headquarters New York, during a visit to UPT PPA East Java.

The CFCI team spent three days in the city of Surabaya visiting a number of schools, family learning centers (puspaga), and children's shelters in the context of assessing the city of Surabaya as a candidate for a child-friendly city. world.

To Shema and the CFCI team, including Rachel Harvey (Child Protection Adviser, Unicef Regional Office Bangkok) and Millen Kidane (Chief of Child Protection Section, Unicef Indonesia), the female motorcycle taxi drivers demonstrated the self-defense movements they have learned.

Sabdo revealed that the women were very enthusiastic about practicing self-defense. As a result, some of the female motorcycle taxi drivers have put into practice the self-defense skills they have acquired. For example, a mother who has been a victim of domestic violence by her husband for the past 15 years, was finally able to defend herself when her husband attempted to hit her.

The Head of the Environmental Management Agency of East Java, Tri Wahyu Liswati, revealed that jujitsu martial arts is one of the Gaspol programs implemented by the agency.

Several other programs include economic empowerment such as cooking classes, beauty courses, sewing, spirituality, psychology, as well as offline and online learning about politics and law.

Also read: Surabaya City Candidate Member of World Child Friendly Cities

The UPTD PPPA East Java has a strategy for handling violence against women and children through the Lapor PAK Program (Women and Children Services in Violence Cases), which serves direct and online complaints of cases of violence against women and children.

This is followed by handling cases through outreach, temporary shelter, medical assistance, psychological assistance, legal assistance, mediation, and social reintegration or repatriation.

The women and child empowerment program conducted by UPTD PPA East Java is appreciated by Shema and the Unicef team. In fact, Shema was very impressed when he met the mothers who were motorcycle taxi drivers practicing martial arts. "With martial arts, the mothers are no longer afraid to go out as they have self-defense skills," he said.

Handling violence

The day before, on Tuesday (26/3/2024), the CFCI Unicef team also met with dozens of mothers in Kampung Puspaga in Balai RW 05, Genteng District, Surabaya. In addition to greeting the children in Balai RW 05, Shema, Rachel, and Millen spent about an hour in dialogue with volunteer mothers and community facilitators at Puspaga RW 05.

Let's move together, empathize with the victims. We have to take an approach so that they feel comfortable and don't feel alone.

To Shema, several mothers revealed the situation of accompanying children in the area, ranging from children who became victims of sexual violence due to contact with adults through social media, to children who became victims of sexual violence by their own parents.

"There was a sixth-grade elementary school student who met an adult through Whatsapp, leading to free association and getting pregnant three months later, followed by an abortion. The child dropped out of school and was eventually secretly married by their parents," said Susi, a facilitator for the community in relation to online sexual violence.

Also read: Surabaya Towards a City Fit for World Children

Therefore, the volunteer mothers of Puspaga RW 05 hope for support from the government to educate the community about the dangers of online sexual violence. This is because a number of children have become victims, with some even wanting to end their lives due to the sexual violence they have experienced.

During the dialogue, some mothers even cried when telling stories about cases of sexual violence experienced by children in their area. They described the difficulty of accompanying their children and educating parents to be aware of threats to their children in the digital world.

Millen urges mothers to keep their mental health in check, and to remain strong in accompanying children and women who are facing cases. She also urges mothers to have the courage to report cases of violence against children and women.

"Let's move together, empathize with the victims. We must approach them so that they feel comfortable and not alone," said Millen.

Empowering women and strengthening their capacity in Puspaga and community settings is crucial. This is because women face direct challenges related to the conditions of children in their surroundings every day.

On the other hand, economic empowerment and training for women, including self-defense, will strengthen women so that they can be independent and capable in society.

Of course, it is not easy to achieve that. Because when Surabaya City nominated itself as a candidate for a child-friendly city, various forms of violence continued to threaten children in Surabaya City.

Prevention and law enforcement of child violence cases need to receive serious attention from the government and all policymakers in Surabaya. Without this, the status of Surabaya as a child-friendly city in the world will be meaningless.