By UCA News reporter
CATHOLIC nuns and women activists joined hands to launch a community forum to tackle rising gender-based violence in Indonesia’s Christian-majority East Nusa Tenggara province.
The group, Puan Floresta Bicara (Flores Women Talk), was launched on Jun 19. It aims to work in three large islands of the province, including the Catholic-majority Flores Island.
The group was launched by nuns from the Congregation of Sisters of the Holy Spirit and women activists from various social organizations in the province.
Sister Herdiana Randut, head of the group, said they started the group “because of concerns and unrest regarding gender issues in East Nusa Tenggara.”
She said that “weak handling and resolution of gender-based cases,” such as increasing sexual violence cases, prompted them to start the initiative.
This condition is still exacerbated by the lack of space to speak for victims of sexual violence and other cases of unequal power relations based on gender, the nun said.
She said the group plans to campaign against gender-based violence, providing support to victims and providing space for women to talk about their problems.
In recent years, the province has recorded a spike in gender-based violence.
In West Manggarai Regency, cases of sexual violence increased significantly to 68 cases last year, from 11 cases in 2022. There were only 16 cases in 2021 and 6 cases in 2020, according to the Catholic advocacy group Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission.
Meanwhile, in East Manggarai Regency, police recorded 16 cases of sexual violence in 2023 compared to 14 cases in 2022.
In Sikka Regency, police recorded 6 cases of child sexual violence this year. In 2022, the police registered 20 similar cases and 28 cases in 2023.
East Manggarai police chief Suryanto, who goes by one name like many Indonesians, said the cases are increasing, and “the perpetrators are generally those close to the victim, including the biological father.”
In May, a man in East Manggarai was accused of raping his daughter and two children.
On March 8, a 74-year-old man from South Elar District in East Manggarai was reported to the police for raping his granddaughter, who studies in an elementary school.
In Borong, East Manggarai Regency capital, police detained a father on Feb 16 for raping his daughter in 2021 when she was 15 years old.
Rape and sexual violence are publishable with 15 years jail term, and an additional five years for the accused if the person is a family member or a relative, the officer said.
Arin Dampus, a representative of a youth forum in Ruteng in Manggarai Regency, joined the new group. She said the group can “become a common forum for anyone to voice gender issues.”
Gender-based violence remains a serious public health and human rights concern in Indonesia, according to the country chapter of the United Nations Population Fund.
The agency reports that one in every four Indonesian women face sexual or physical violence in their lifetime. – UCA News
