Jakarta, Aug 20 (ANTARA) - The population in many cities and urban areas across Indonesia is expected to swell, following the return of around 16 million holiday travelers to their places of work, after celebrating the Idul-Fitr festival with their families in their hometowns.
Jakarta has become one of the most sought after destinations for new migrants looking to move to urban areas. The exodus of tens of thousands of such migrants from rural and small-towns in Indonesia to the capital city every year after the annual Lebaran holiday has become something of a tradition.
However, as a result Jakarta has been facing urbanization problems, with a booming population of about 9.2 million, and an additional 2.7 million workers, who commute to the city on a daily basis for work, from satellite towns such as Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi.
So for all practical purposes, the total population of Jakarta can be pegged at 11.9 million during the day time.
According to the International NGO Forum on Indonesia Development (INFID), around 200,000 to 250,000 new migrants arrive in Jakarta every year, which has created a population glut in the city. About 30.5 percent of the new migrants choose to settle in east Jakarta, while others prefer to live in housing enclaves scattered throughout the city suburbs.
"Jakarta is closed to new comers who are looking for jobs, but have no skills," Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said during a press conference held last week to address the arrangements being made to handle the onslaught of returning holiday travelers.
Id-ul Fitr travelers are expected to start returning on Tuesday, with the rush peaking on the weekend when employees return to resume work on Monday.
Bowo urged Jakarta-bound travelers, also known as 'pemudik' not to bring to the city any relatives or friends who lack professional or industrial skills.
"If bringing any new migrants along, you need to abide by the rules that are currently in force in Jakarta," he said, while inspecting the preparations made for passengers arriving at the Senen railway station.
He also stated that only those people who have special skills or expertise in an area should aspire to live and work in Jakarta. "They must have skills or a special expertise so that they do not become a burden on Jakarta," the governor pointed out, and suggested that new migrants should also consider staying in their home towns and developing those regions as work opportunities in Jakarta are limited.
Jakarta is even cooperating with regional governments on sustainable development projects, so that residents of the region are not forced to move to urban areas in search for employment.
"Most of the regional governments are carrying out sustainable development, aimed at preventing the local population from leaving their hometowns," Bowo said.
He added that it was encouraging to see that migration to Jakarta has dropped in the last few years, and that the city's government will do everything to maintain this trend.
Data from the Jakarta Population Services indicates that the number of new migrants looking to move to Jakarta after the Idul-Fitr festival has reduced sizeably to 51,875 in 2011, down from 59,215 in 2010.
Bowo also quoted from BeritaJakarta.Com, an online media portal, which pegged the average number of new migrants coming to Jakarta every year at 138,000 in May 2010.
The governor noted that Jakarta will not be closed to visitors from across Indonesia, who wish to visit their relatives or picnic in the city, but it will be mandatory for such travelers to carry temporary domicile documents, which will be valid for a year and be effective 14 days after the Idul Fitr holidays.
In anticipation of such visitors, the Jakarta administration has approached a number of provincial governments to act as migration centers and help foresee any leap in the number of new migrants.
These centers will help inform prospective visitors of the conditions required to be met by anyone who wishes to visit Jakarta.
"If they meet the population administration's requirements, Jakarta will not be closed to them. If not, they will only end up becoming a liability for the city," the governor stated.
Jakarta is one of the many cities in Indonesia, which have high urbanization levels, and these are expected to touch 68 percent in 2025.
However, urbanization levels are already very high in several provinces of the country such as Java and Bali, which rank among the highest, compared with the rest of Indonesia. Urbanization levels in four provinces in Java, which include Jakarta, West Java, Yogyakarta and Banten are already above 80 percent.
That is why regional governments have adopted these strict measures to control further urbanization.
For instance, the regional government of West Java is planning to develop 'urban areas' or small towns in rural or remote areas.
"The key to preventing urbanization is to carry out development in rural areas. Therefore, we hope we can focus this year on the development of such towns in villages," West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan said on Sunday.
He added that West Java has also been focusing on the development of the education and health sectors since last year, and plans to develop villages, which will become 'small town or urban village' icons next year.
"We have to continue developing villages for our people, so that they also experience advancement and become reluctant to leave their villages. We hope that with this development, they can simply move to a small town if they want to," Heryawan said.
He added that the West Java government replicated the "Civilization Village Development" program some years back and applied it to its own village development pattern.
The program covers the development of villages, which includes provision of facilities such as markets, worship houses, meeting halls, school buildings, independent power supplies and other public facilities.
"The Civilization Village program is a systematic effort aimed at developing and empowering villages, so that urbanization can be stopped at the sub-district level," Heryawan said.***3***
(T.A014/INE/H-YH/KR-BSR/A/H-YH) 20-08-2012 20:05 |
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