Ria worked as a make-up artist in Ciracas, East Jakarta, and usually took orders for wedding make-up with her friends. At the same time, she was also active in church.
Rosa as Ria’s friend told us about their first meeting in 2018 in a meeting hall in East Jakarta.
“She manages other waria (Transgender MtF) who come. She always arrives early” said Rosa, who accompanied Ria and Tiko from the beginning of their illness until their death.
Ria’s activities in church stopped during the pandemic because of the lockdown, and it worsened during her sickness. Ria depended on her friends to eat until her death on Thursday, October 27th, 2022.
Tiko experiences similar conditions with Ria. Tiko sold aquarium fish for her daily life. She opened a small business in Kartini Raya, Centre Jakarta. Once, her business was evicted, but she insisted on continuing it as her daily income. Yet, she couldn’t open it every day due to a lack of customers, especially when Tiko became sick and died on Sunday, October 30th, 2022.
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A similar story took place in Yogyakarta from Mak Erni. She was an Indian dancer in the Seruni community, Sleman, Yogyakarta. She worked as a busker for her daily life. During a pandemic, she was diagnosed with Tuberculosis (TB). It made her couldn’t work as a busker, and she changed her activity to help with kitchen work in the community.
Rully Malay, as Waria Crisis Center (WCC) coordinator, evacuated Mak Erni to WCC during a post-pandemic with the Delta variant. In July 2022, mak Erni was taken by her family for treatment. However, Rully got information that Mak Erni was homeless in Bekasi a couple of months after her family picked her up. Next, Mak Erni came back to Yogyakarta and Rully didn’t find anyone to escort her.
After coming back, Mak Erni’s condition worsened and she should rest. Rully took care of her, including cleaning her defecate.
“In 20 days, she was on bed rest; I should throw away her pampers to the restroom. Those were both our difficult times. I usually go to the office at 9 am but I can’t” said Rully to Konde. co during a call (17/11/22).
Rully managed her time because she usually cooked for her community at 5 am and went to the office at 9 am. She moved her meeting time to after lunch.
Mak Erni condition worsened and Rully took her to Dr.Sardjito hospital. Mak Erni died on October 22nd, 2022. She was buried in TPU Seyegan, Sleman, by her friends from trans women community while her family didn’t come.
“(Her family, red) didn’t come. I already told them the obituary but no response” said Rully.
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The bureaucracy and administration process of Mak Erni was more straightforward than other trans women before “It is a common case so the process becomes simpler” said Rully. Yet, Mak Erni’s name couldn’t be put on her tombstone.
“We cannot put her (name, red), only as Mr X. That’s one of the conditions of social welfare services because it is free. The government pays for it. So, when it is full someday, it will be replaced by other people.”
Rully has expectations to include trans women – especially those who don’t have good terms with family – as members of BPJS so they can get death compassionate assistance. In addition, they also can get death benefits. If there is a surplus from the death benefit, WCC can use it to help their work or give it to family members.
Rosa agreed with Rully. The community usually takes the initiative to collect money for trans women who are ill or die, but it cannot cover all needs. The needs include washing the deceased, dressing the dead with white cloths, ambulance service, and digging a grave.
“If there is a friend who died, we are busy collecting money from the community. How much do we get? It is so less; we cannot cover funeral services.”
Trans women community hopes they can get death compassionate assistance and benefits by becoming members of The Employment Social Security Administration (BPJS Ketenagakerjaan) and Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan).
The process of claiming BPJS Ketenagakerjaan still no vulnerable groups friendly
Wednesday noon, November 9th, 2022, the large table was full demanding attention from a restaurant located in Veteran Road, Central Jakarta. Hartoyo from Suara Kita Organization and several trans women talked with the head and staff of BPJS Ketenagakerjaan about the claiming process of BPJS Ketenagakerjaan for trans women.
Three days before the meeting, Hartoyo handled claiming BPJS Ketenagakerjaan for three of his friends, Ria, Tiko, and Erni.
Hartoyo told Konde.co that three of them with the other 130 trans women, already became a member of BPJS Ketenagakerjaan in June 2022, but they had a problem while they were claiming it.
Suara Kita organization with transpuan community provided social security program for transpuan by become a member of BPJS Kesehatan and BPJS Ketenagakerjaan. The initiative of the program came along with a population administration access program for trans women.
Trans women often didn’t have identity cards in the past because their families abandoned them. It led them to poorness. The access to a population administration allowed them to access public services, including social security services.
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Hartoyo and his friends anticipated that becoming a member of BPJS, Kesehatan, and Ketenagakerjaan could guarantee protection for trans women who are sick or dead. He hopes through the system, trans women could get decent treatment as other members of BPJS, especially elderly trans women without family members.
The social security program focused on trans women, especially those aged 50 – 65 and poor. The monthly contribution for BPJS was paid by public donation.
Each member of BPJS should make a will with a notary agreement to simplify the process and access claiming death funds. A will should include monthly contribution resources information for BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, death-claiming receiver information, and management and usage of death-claiming funds.
So, the process of claiming faces challenges, mainly because the claiming process still focuses on blood relations even though they already made a will. Without family-blood relation, the death benefits claim taker should provide a document to state their relation.
The conditions, Hartoyo stated, neglected the experiences of trans women’s lives. Hartoyo explained “BPJS prioritizes claim taker with blood relations. Thus, our juristic is still normative; it never pays attention to the sociology context.”
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On the other hand, the situation in our society often causes people to be abandoned by their families. Hartoyo stated “Every individual wasn’t born into a normative family; it is important. They can become victims of sexual violence or rape or were born into a family with mental illness, abandoned children, etc. Sometimes, they don’t know anything about their family tree because they stay at an orphanage or are adopted. This is not one or two cases. There is a child who has a problem in the family, so they don’t want to interact with them. Waria – transgender MtF is one of this group. Maybe they have family, but they are abandoned.” Rosa who works in Srikandi Sejati Foundation for trans women with HIV/AIDS agreed with Hartoyo’s statement.
“We always try to ask about family members of trans women who are sick. They always decline it but we believe they have family. But at the end of the day, they always stay quiet because most of them are abandoned by their family due to their identity as waria. The family is ashamed of it. So, they usually come to waria community and never go to the family” Rosa said.
The discussion to find a solution
The reality of trans women challenged the process of death benefit claiming. Hartoyo explained two reasons: technical problems with seeking trans women family members. Second, trans women were mainly abandoned by their own families.
Those situations indicated that BPJS Ketenagakerjaan didn’t recognize problems in the trans women community. Furthermore, there was evidence of bias from policymakers to set regulations.
“The state should answer their civil needs, such as becoming a member of the BPJS. The conditions of the community are not always ideal. It becomes a bias from policymaker” stated Hartoyo
Yet, the challenge to receive the death benefit didn’t stop Hartoyo from fighting for it. He told the case to Nihayatul Wafiroh, vice chairman of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia IX commission, who, in the end, continued the information to BPJS central. The discussion continued on Wednesday (9/11) with the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan Salemba branch pushed by BPJS Ketenagakerjaan Central.
The topic of discussions, including the authority letter to prove that the deceased stayed alone without family could be obtained from the neighborhood, hamlet, or ward office by the claim taker. Next, BPJS will survey to prove it.
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M, Izaddin as the chief of BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, Salemba branch said “As a claim taker, they can prove the deceased’s condition by a letter from the neighborhood, hamlet, or ward office. The letter is strong enough to make a claim.”
However, if the deceased still belongs to a family card, the family should remove it. The process wasn’t needed if it was already stated with the authorized will.
“But, if the deceased name is still on a family card, we will ask to remove their inheritance rights in the authorized will,” said Izaddin
The legitimate will should contain one of these three; (1) it be made by a notary and registered to the Central Authority Ministry of Law and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia; (2) it be made in front of a notary; and (3) it made by a notary, signed by deceased and authorized by notary.
Nevertheless, Hartoyo said that options 1 and 2 were not realistic for the trans women community. It would cost money for trans women to register it to the Central Authority Ministry of Law and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia and also to the notary, in option 2.
Option no 3 became more realistic “It becomes our choice with our situation” Hartoyo said.
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Timboel Siregar advocacy coordinator of BPJS watch who came to the meeting on Wednesday (9/11) said that transgender are a neglected community who mostly marginalized by family. This should be acknowledged as a social fact and become homework for BPJS Ketenagakerjaan. Timboel encouraged BPJS Ketenagakerjaan to use juristic wider, such as a recognition that a will is a treaty in the theory of covenant and basic laws.
In law, the theory of covenant emerged from two cases, (1) regulation and (2) treaty. A will could include a treaty between a will grantor and receiver. It meant a will more substantial than a regulation, such as in transgender cases.
The transgender who have their family card don’t need their blood-relative anymore. Even though they are born from mothers and fathers because of religious, social, and legal norms, but if they already had separate family cards, their family did not need to feel responsible, especially if they already made a will. It required BPJS to pay out the death benefit based on a will, such as to the transgender community, orphanage, etc.
“This case indicates that BPJS should accommodate what is stated in a will,” Timboel stated.
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In addition, Timboel demanded BPJS central to proceed with the output of the discussion on Wednesday (9/11) and continue to other branches. BPJS central should be delivered as a form letter so the branches receive the same information.
“It should be legalized in the form of a letter to become a positive law for all branches of office. The form of a letter is functioning to generalize services in BPJS” said Timboel. It was agreed to and processed by dr Suci Rahmad as a deputy assistant in the work accident security (JKK)/ death security (JKM) policies program.
The result from the one-hour discussion was also the case of Ria, Tiko, and Erni could proceed. Izaddin said they only need authorized documents. Yet, there was no guarantee when the process would end. Hartoyo promised he would come again in a few weeks to ask.
“We will wait for the results, it should be finished in less than a month. I will scan the document and send it to them” Hartoyo said.
Regulations with no vulnerable groups are friendly
In the end, the Suara Kita Organization was only proceeding with the death benefit from Ria and Ernie because Tiko still had a sibling who wanted to take care of it.
The process was facing a challenge because the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan Salemba branch didn’t accept a will from the deceased. They said they couldn’t legitimate the will because of their no validation from the judiciary.
“The condition of the claiming process is if there is no heir, the will should be validated by the judiciary,” said Izaddin to Konde. co by a phone call on Thursday (1/12/22).
Izaddin stated that the will was only authorized by the notary. It made BPJS Ketenagakerjaan unable to proceed.
“The will is invalid because it only has one marking from the notary. We are not hindering it. Please do the process and we will wait for it while waiting for the legal heir or waiting for the judiciary to decide on the heir” Izaddin said.
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Izaddin’s explanation made Hartoyo feel disappointed with the process. Hartoyo already took the transgender to the notary to make a will. During the process, Hartoyo indicated there was no information in regulation during registration to appoint a person to receive a claim, which was actually used by private insurance.
“It is common sense for private insurance. It is really clear who is the polis holder, who is the grantor, and receiver” said Hartoyo. At the same time, Hartoyo suspected that this is not only a problem for trans women.
“With the new regulation, whoever doesn’t have blood-relative will have difficulty accessing death benefits for 42 million rupiahs (2663 USD)”
The regulation of death benefit receivers is stated in government regulation No. 44/2015. Article 40 clause 2b.5 stated that “If there is no will, funeral costs are paid to the company or other party that takes care of the funeral, while lump sum compensation and periodic compensation as intended in Article 34 paragraph (1) letters a and b are handed over to the Social Security Fund.”
There were not many options for trans women without family members. Suara Kita Organization already gave the documents for two trans women to claim death benefits to the BPJS office Salemba branch, Central Jakarta on Thursday (1/12/22).
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Next, on Tuesday (6/12/22), BPJS Ketenagakerjaan cashed out funeral costs for two transgender named Ria and Erni.
“Each person gets 10 million (634 USD) for vulneral costs. So, in total, we get 20 million (1268 USD). One deceased person who has a family still struggles to provide a will and that is complicated” Hartoyo said.
Yet, BPJS Ketenagakerjaan couldn’t cash out the remaining 32 million (2029 USD) due to the invalid will based on their statement. BPJS Ketenagakerjaan insisted the blood relatives should come to take a claim.
Hartoyo admitted that he and his team had already done several ways to take the death benefit.
“We already did several ways to advocate this case. We discussed it with a team from BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, staff from the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia IX commission, BPJS supervisory board, BPJS watch, The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), and media” he said.
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He expects that BPJS will change its regulation, especially for trans women community and people in poverty to easily access or claim death benefits. So, it can help other communities.
“The important thing is we work together and help our community. It is not only about regulation, but it is for educating trans women to care about their social security in their old age. There are many aspects to it.” Hartoyo added.
(This article is part of “Suara Pekerja: Stop Kekerasan dan Pelecehan di Dunia Kerja – The Voices of Workers: Stop violence and sexual abuse in workplaces” program supported by “VOICE”)
(Translated by: Theresia)
