Crisis Resilience through Rural Revitalization
Covid-19 pandemic has caused a large wave of Indonesian Migrant Workers (PMI) to return to their hometowns in the villages. This creates an abundance of labor and is feared to be an economic burden for villages and regions. However, on the other hand, PMI can also be seen as an opportunity for villages to optimize resource utilization and village development processes, because these migrant workers have a variety of skills that can contribute to village economic recovery. This is among the explanations from Nofalia Nurfitriani, AKATIGA researcher, in a webinar entitled Crisis Resilience Through Rural Revitalization which was held in collaboration with Migrant Care with AKATIGA (Tuesday, 31 August 2020).
Regarding the handling of Covid-19 in villages, Bito Wikantosa, Director of Basic Social Services at the PDTT Ministry of Villages, explained that the government has shifted the use of village funds to three focused activities for handling Covid, namely; for the costs of preventing transmission, distribution of direct cash assistance (BLT), and economic recovery through village cash work programs (PKDT). PKDT is directed at economic empowerment in villages, for example for agriculture, fisheries, animal husbandry and other economic potential in villages.
Frans Haidar, Head of Dispermades Kab. Kebumen sees these conditions as encouraging revitalization of better use of village funds. If in the past it was only focused on infrastructure, now it can develop more towards community empowerment, including PMI and their families. In this case, the opportunity that PMI can take advantage of is BLT and being involved in economic recovery through cash-intensive work.
However, in practice the BLT and PKTD programs are not yet widely known among PMI. Arumy Marsudi, a former migrant worker from Kebumen said that currently many PMI have been sent home and cannot return, and unfortunately many of them cannot receive BLT or PKTD because they do not meet the recipient requirements (poor, vulnerable disease, etc.). Regarding this, Frans suggested to PMI or their families that PMI needs to be more active in village meetings, so that they can be involved in the BLT or PKTD programs. However, if they do not meet the recipient requirements, PMI can try to access other programs from the Manpower Service.
Highlighting the issue of PMI’s limited access to the BLT or PKTD program, Wahyu Susilo from Migrant Care explained that the idea of dealing with the impact of Covid in villages simply by diverting Village Funds needs to be changed. Rural revitalization related to handling the impact of Covid, and also regarding empowering PMI needs to consider the management of remittances (money transfers from overseas). Remittance management should be integrated into the development process in the village, for example in the context of growing new businesses from PMI groups or families.
Regarding the idea of this issue, Nofalia explained how agriculture could be optimized by the village government in Kebumen for economic recovery from the impact of Covid, and empowering PMI. As the most common job opportunity in rural Kebumen, agriculture has the potential to become a new job opportunity for PMI and other newly unemployed people. However, it needs to be realized that the agricultural sector is also greatly affected in the form of chaos in production input and output because logistics are disrupted, and this causes a decrease in income.
To strengthen the agricultural sector, village governments can help by allocating village funds to provide subsidies for accessing production resources, namely access to village treasury land. Cheaper access to land will really help poor affected communities, including PMI, to be able to benefit from agricultural businesses. This is a strategic approach, both in the context of economic recovery from the impact of the pandemic, and for the process of revitalizing villages as a basis for community empowerment. For this purpose, AKATIGA together with FORMASI and Dispermades Kebumen are pushing for a village treasury land management policy which will become a guide and guidance for the village government in managing its village treasury land more inclusively.
