Microsoft Word - Listiawati_E-journal 1 EFFECTIVENESS OF THE PROGRAM OF EMPOWERMENT OF THE WOMEN RESIDING AT THE COASTAL AREA OF AMPENAN DISTRICT, MATARAM CITY, LOMBOK IMPLEMENTED IN THE FORM OF LIFE SKILLS Ni Putu Listiawati1, Emiliana Mariyah2, I Nyoman Kutha Ratna2, I Gde Semadi Astra2 1Postgraduate Program, Udayana University 2Faculty of Letters, Udayana University Email: dhyanawilis@yahoo.com ABSTRACT The program of the empowerment of the women living in Mataram City implemented in the form of life skills including vocational skill, social skill, and personal skill has been carried out since 2001. In reality, the attempts already made could not improve the well-being of the women in Mataram City in general and the women living along the coastal area of Ampenan, South Ampenan District and Banjar District in particular. Based on the background mentioned above, the researcher was interested in exploring the effectiveness of the program of the empowerment provided in the form life skills. Three problems are formulated in this research. They are (1) how effective the implementation of the empowerment program of the women residing at the coastal area of Ampenan District was?; (2) what factors contributed to the effectiveness of the empowerment program of the women residing at the coastal area?; (3) what were the effects and meanings of the effectiveness of the empowerment program of the women residing at the coastal area? The theories employed to answer the problems formulated above are the theory of post feminism by Ann Brooks, the theory of social practice by Bourdieu and the theory of power/knowledge by Foucault. The theories were eclectically applied. The qualitative method was employed in this study and the data needed were collected by the techniques of observation, in-depth interview, Focus Group Discussion (hereon abbreviated to FGD), documentation and library research. The results of the study show that (1) the program of the empowerment of the women living in the coastal area was ineffective; (2) the factors which contributed to the effectiveness of the empowerment of the women living along the coastal area are economic capital, cultural capital, socio culture and symbolic culture; (3) the effects of the effectiveness of the empowerment program were on the skills acquired, the income earned, the independence acquired, the environment where they live and their pattern of consumerism. The meanings felt by one third of the women empowered were the meaning of awareness, the meaning of solidarity, and the meaning of being independent. In relation to this research, several things are suggested; (1) it is necessary to continue the empowerment program for the women living at the coastal area with the development of personal and social skills as the priority; (2) it is necessary for the government to build a quality technological, informational and communicative network in the form of educative informational centers at the coastal area; (4) it is time to establish vocational schools, which are accessible to the local people, starting from the basic level to middle level in which skills how to manage coastal areas and sea would be provided. If it is possible, such schools should be free of charge; (5) further research needs to be conducted to understand the characteristics of the women living along the coastal area of Ampenan. Key words: empowerment, women residing at coastal area, life skills, effectiveness 2 I. INRODUCTION The program of empowerment of the women living in Mataram City which is implemented in the form vocational skill, social skill and personal skill has been carried out since in 2001. In reality, the attempts made to implement the program has not yet been able to improve the well-being of the women living in Mataram City in general and the women living along the coastal area of Ampenan, South Ampenan and Banjar Sub Districts in particular. The gap between the women coming from the popular class, and those coming from the dominant class and bourgeois class is still big. Based on the background above, the researcher was interested in exploring the effectiveness of the program of empowerment of the women living along the coastal area of Ampenan implemented in the form of life skills. The objective was to reveal the social, cultural and economic gap mentioned above. It was also intended to reveal why the people coming from the dominant class kept reproducing structures which benefited themselves and the bourgeois class. In other words, it was intended to reveal why the dominant class kept dominating the popular class. Three problems are formulated in this research. They are (1) how effective the implementation of the empowerment program of the women residing at the coastal area of Ampenan District was?; (2) what factors contributed to the effectiveness of the empowerment program of the women residing at the coastal area?; (3) what were the effects and meanings of the effectiveness of the empowerment program of the women residing at the coastal area? To answer the problems mentioned above, the theory of post feminism by Ann Brooks was used. The theory of social practice by Bourdieu was used to discuss chapter five, chapter six and chapter seven, and the theory of power/knowledge by Foucault was used to discuss chapter five and chapter six. These theories were all enclitically applied. Qualitative method was employed in this study. The data needed were collected by applying the techniques of observation, in-depth observation, Focus Group Discussion, documentation and library research. The library research was done by tracing back some related works such as that written by Anwar (2007). He applied the model of empowerment of isolated women who were partly close. Matters related to gender and educational dimension were analyzed. He stated that the community participation and the condition of its socio culture were important when planning a program. Kusnadi (2006) sharpened the relationship between socio ecology and coastal culture. The indicators which were used to measure the effectiveness of the program of empowerment of the women living at Ampenan and Banjar Sub Districts which was implemented in the form of life skills were as follows; (1) the effectiveness with regard to vocational skill; effectiveness with regard to social skill; (3) the effectiveness with regard to personal skill. These measures of effectiveness were adopted before they were adjusted to the 3 substance of discussion to identify whether the program was successful or failed. If the percentage obtained was more than eighty percent, it could be stated that the program was effective. The percentage ranging from sixty percent to eighty percent was stated to be effective. And the percentage under sixty percent was stated to be ineffective. II DISCUSSION Administratively, Ampenan Sub district is rich in natural resources, one of which is the coast and the sea. The width of its sea fishery potential is 56.80 square kilometers. The coastal area of Ampenan is about nine square kilometers long. Its natural resources may potentially function as the economic capital, which can be dug up and utilized for the human well-being. However, the utilization of the natural resources is usually done by paying no attention to the environmental sustainability. This can found in any tourist destination, any residence where the fishermen live and so forth. In the area where the research was conducted, four social organizations were recorded. They are banjar kematian (an organization which attends to death), banjar perkawinan (an organization which attends to marriages), kelompok karang taruna (an organization which attends to the affairs of the youth), PKK (an organization whose members are the mothers) and an association of fishermen. There are many informal economic agents along the coastal area, one of which is in the form of a bank named Bank Subuh (a bank which gives loans informally). Actually, the government has prohibited it from operating but it is run secretly. The people coming from the lower class (Boudieu refers to them as the people coming from the popular class) frequently borrows money from this bank for buying their daily needs, for buying things needed for any religious ritual and for sending their children to school with high interest rate. There are also several small business run by women (Perempuan Usaha Kecil, hereon abbreviated to PUK) named Anggrek, Kenanga, Kamboja, Kube Sinar Laut and so forth which also play an important role in supporting the economy in this area. PUK has always been the target of the training programs carried out at Ampenan Sub District since 2001. The program of the empowerment of the women living along the coastal area provided in the form of life skills has been implemented by the government through what is called Bag.Kesra (a division which is concerned with human well-being) and some related institutions. The supplement programs have been carried out by Dekoperindag (Department of Industry and Trade), BKBKS (Family Planning Board), Dinas Pertanian (Department of Agriculture), and Dinas Perikanan dan Kelautan (Department of Fishery and Oceanography). The life skills provided include training, supervision and on-the-job training. Every business group is made up of five members. There have been nine participants from South Ampenan and 4 Banjar Sub Districts. The focus of the training has been on how to use the tools needed, how to recognize the materials needed, and how to work rapidly and accurately, what to do to innovate, and on the on-the-job training techniques. Every activity has been followed by submission of assistance either in the form of either capital or tools. The empowerment of the women living along the coastal area has been implemented in the form of vocational skill, social skill, and personal skill. The effectiveness of the program implemented in the form of vocational skill and the factors which contributed to the effectiveness can be described as follows. The empowerment in the form of how to process fish includes how to produce fish abon (shredded fish which has been boiled and fried) , fish bakso (fish balls), dried fish, salted fish, and fish chips. Much is produced from this process and sometimes some is left unsold without being further processed. During the months when it is difficult to catch fish, those who run this business have problem in finding the fresh fish. It is difficult to keep the economic capital which is in the form of fresh fish sustainable. Therefore, Kusnadi (2006:219) highlights that the socio ecological and cultural condition of the coastal area is a very important to refer to when compiling a program of empowerment for a particular area. Bourdieu (1990:xviii) states that the concept of a domain refers to a relational network among the objective positions of a social order which is separated from an individual’s consciousness and intention. During the seasons when there is an abundance of fish at Ampenan some skills are needed for preserving the fish. The problems are that the people do not have the skill needed for preserving the fish and their income is too low to be able to meet their minimum physical needs. The gender relationship which is imbalanced and the patriarchal culture which is too strong are reflected in the structured coastal community of Ampenan. They are powerless. The social space for the coastal women is related, through time, to a set of space domains in which the coastal women struggle to obtain capital with what they have. The limited number of the coastal women impedes the process of obtaining various forms of capital fairly. The empowerment of the women by providing them with the skill how to process fish has been realized in the form of making fish balls, salted fish, dried fish and fish chips. In animal husbandry, the program has been implemented in the form of making salted eggs and lung chips. In plantation, the program has been implemented in the form of making chips and jack fruit taffy. The selection of who are to attend the training program has been made so discriminately that the people coming from the popular class do not have objective access to the various forms of capital. According to Bourdieu (in Haryatmoko, 2003: 15) the place where the struggle for power is made refers to the scope of relationship of strength among the agents which have particular types of capital. In this fashion, they can dominate the place where related struggles are made. The local government with its symbolic capital has applied domination of 5 symbolic violence by making discriminative selection of those who are to be involved in the program of empowerment. Such a symbolic violence has resulted from the low ownership of cultural capital of the popular class (the group of the women with a narrow perspective, whose way of thinking is simple, who are permissive and so forth. In addition, the social capital they have does not support. The effectiveness of the social empowerment focuses on what has been obtained from the supervision and training program in family education carried out. Only twenty two percent of the participants show that they have made progress in the ability of collaborating, and in arranging income in the perspective gender. Therefore, it can be stated that the social empowerment has been ineffective. The supervision and training carried out are related to the training how to communicate verbally in the perspective of gender, how to collaborate, how to arrange income in the perspective of gender which can be used as the strategy of social interaction. A strategy is closely related to capital (economic capital, social capital and symbolic capital) as a social relationship, that is, a strategy which is only in existence and productive in the arena where struggle is made to produce and reproduce (Bourdieu, 1979: 127). As can be seen from the phenomenon taking place at Ampenan, in any social activity a discrimination may take place, in which the poor people are never involved in any meeting and decision making held in the environment where they live. The classical reason is that they will not be able to give contribution in the form of thought as they are considered less educated (they are assumed to have very low cultural capital); therefore, they are symbolically dominated. The skill of how to develop entrepreneurship has been provided as the form of empowerment of personal skill. The women have been trained how to get involved in any organization such as in the association of the female entrepreneurs of Mataram City. This association has been established to help its members to market what they have produced and to solve matters related to capital. However, only a few women coming from South Ampenan and Banjar Sub Districts have been involved in the organization. Only three out of nine women have been involved, meaning that only thirty percent has been involved. Therefore, it can be stated that in this case the program of empowerment has been less effective. The reason is that only thirty percent has been involved. Being less than sixty percent is categorized as being ineffective. The factors which have contributed to the effectiveness of the program of empowerment are natural resources (termed as economic capital by Bourdieu), human resources in the form of skills (cultural capital), capital (economic capital), cultural factors such as cultural capital and symbolic capital, the factor of the government’s awareness (social capital, symbolic capital), technological factor (economic factor), and informational and communicative factors (socio capital). The sea natural resources at the coastal area of Ampenan are typical (fish, seaweed, sea 6 corals, sea shells); land natural resources include agricultural products, plantation products such as coconut, jackfruit, belinjo (Gnetum gnemon); livestock includes ducks, goats, cows and buffalos). All the natural resources mentioned above are classified as biological natural resources (http:// id.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Management of Human Resources). The production factors needed are still simple and have not been supported by adequate skills. In addition, technology has not been appropriately applied to all micro businesses. Apart from that, information and communication, as social capital, have been less developed. These factors also contribute to the effectiveness of the program of empowerment implemented at the coastal area. Social phenomena are related to each other; therefore, if one changes, the others will change as well. The effects will be seen on the skills, the income, the environment, on the consumerism and so forth. Out of the nine women involved in the program, six have not obtained anything from the skills trained. This means that they have not been able to be entrepreneurs as they do not have the work ethic, the motivation, the innovation and the persistence in developing their businesses. This affects their income, their being independent and their consumerism. The meaning of awareness shown is that only a few women living at the coastal are of South and Banjar Sub Districts are involved in the program of empowerment in the form of life skills. Only a few recognize that having productive resources is important. Only a few make attempts to increase their family income. Most of them depend on their husbands as the income generators. The meaning of solidarity which is felt is that there has been solidarity among the women through the support given by the organizational network of PUK, their husbands and children. The meaning of solidarity and the meaning of being independent have only been felt by three (thirty percent) out of the nine women living at the coastal area of Ampenan who are involved in the program of empowerment in the form of life skills. The meaning of being independent has been obtained after they feel they are meaningful to their families. When their final products are ordered by many costumers, their income increases and this is meaningful to the community surrounding them. III FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH The findings of the research are as follows: (1) The program of empowerment of the women living along the coastal area of Ampenan has not been felt by all the women coming from the popular group (their perspective is narrow, they are permissive and the social capital they have does not support). (2) The capital owners (the creditors), having controlled the capital resources, have dominated the women living at the coastal area and have been responsible for the ineffectiveness of the program. 7 (3) The skill how to manage micro businesses obtained by the three women out of the nine has given them power to organize themselves. The knowledge they have obtained has made them obey the rules. This has made the program effective to the three women concerned. IV CONCLUSIONS The conclusions which can be withdrawn from the above analysis are as follows: (1) As far as the vocational skill provided in the program of empowerment is concerned, only thirty three percent has been effective; as far as the social skill is concerned, twenty two percent has been effective; as far as the personal skill provided is concerned, only forty five percent has been effective, and as far as the morality of entrepreneurship implanted is concerned, only thirty three percent has been effective. In general, the program of empowerment of the women living along the coastal area has been ineffective. (2) The factors which have contributed to the effectiveness of the program of empowerment of the women living along the coastal area are natural resources (economic capital), human resources with their skills (cultural capital), capital resources (economic capital), cultural factors (cultural capital, symbolic capital), the government’s awareness (social capital), technological factors (economic factors), and informational and communicative factors (social factors). These factors have strongly contributed to the effectiveness of the program of empowerment of the women living along the coastal area of Ampenan. (3) The effectiveness of the empowerment has the effects on (a) skills; there have been nine women who have been trained to master vocational skill, personal skill and socio skill. After being empowered, four of them have been able to apply the personal skill well; (b) income; only one third of them have shown that they have been able to increase their income. Their income has increased four or five times more than before they joined the program; (c) independence; there have been three business groups established, they have all been independent and have applied the principles of entrepreneurship which are socially fair; (d) environment; the business of producing dried fish has been in existence here and there and this has been responsible for the land, water and air pollutions. The reason is that the waste produced has not been well processed; (e) consumerism; the higher income has made them imitate the way of life of the dominant class to show that they have belonged to a particular social class. The meanings which have been felt are (a) the meaning of awareness, one third of the women living along the coastal area of South Ampenan and Banjar Sub Districts have felt that it is important for them to have productive sources of income; (b) the meaning of solidarity; this meaning has only been 8 felt by one third of the women living at coastal area who have been empowered. There has been solidarity among them, supported by their organization and families; (c) the meaning of being independent; only a few of them have felt that their income has increased after their total sales have increased. They have been able to support what is needed by their families and they have been able to send their children to school. V. BIBLIOGRAPHY Anwar.2007. Manajemen Pemberdayaan Perempuan. Perubahan Sosial melalui Pembelajaran Vocasional Skill pada Keluarga Nelayan. Disertasi PPs Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia. Bandung: ALFABETA. Kusnadi. 2006. Peran Publik Istri Nelayan Madura dalam Memenuhi Kebutuhan Sosial Ekonomi Rumah Tangga di Kabupaten Sumenep. Telah dipublikasikan dalam buku berjudul: Perempuan Pesisir. Yogyakarta: LkiS. Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge Prancis: University Press. Bourdieu, Pierre. 1989. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Harvad University Press. Bourdieu, Pierre. 1990. (Habitus X Modal) + Ranah = Praktek : Pengantar Paling Komprehensif kepada Pemikiran Pierre Bourdieu. Bandung : Jalasutra. Sumber terjemahan An Introduction to the work of Pierre Bourdieu: The Practice Theory. Editor Richard Harker.1990. The Macmillan Press Ltd:London. Bourdieu, Pierre. 1990a. The Logic of Practice. Translate by Richard Nice, California: Stanford University Press. VI. ACKNOWLEGEMENTS In this opportunity, the writer would like to thank (1) the Rector of Udayana University, Prof. Dr. dr. I Made Bakta, Sp.PD (KHOM); (2) the Director of Postgraduate Program of Udayana University, :Prof. Dr.dr. A.A. Raka Sudewi,Sp. S (K); (3) Prof. Dr.Made Budiarsa, MA., as Vice Director I; (4) Dr I Ketut Budisusrusa, S. Msc.; as Vice Director II of the Postgraduate Program of Udayana University; (5) Head and Secretary of the Doctorate Program of Cultural Studies of Udayana University, :Prof. Dr. I Made Suwastika, S.U., and his staff who have provided the researcher with the facilities needed; (6) Prof. Dr. Emiliana Mariyah, M.S., as the Promoter for her full attention, patience, motivation, guidance, and suggestions in the process of completing this dissertation, while being busy with her responsibilities as Head of the Master Program of Cultural Studies of the Postgraduate Program of Udayana University; (7) Prof. Dr. I Nyoman Kutha Ratna,M.S., as Co-promoter I and Prof. Dr. I Gde Semadi Astra, as Co-pormoter II for their patience and carefulness when supervising the researcher when completing this dissertation; (8) Prof. Dr. I Wayan Ardika, M.A., Prof. Dr. Ir. Sulistiyawati, M.S., Prof. Dr. I Gde Parimartha, M.A., and Prof. Dr. I Nengah Duija, M.Sci for their corrections, suggestions and input for the completion of this dissertation; (9) the informants in particular.