INDONESIA: Whole Communities are resettled under government’s transmigration policy

Record ID: 848650

  • Title: INDONESIA: Whole Communities are resettled under government’s transmigration policy
  • Date: 3rd December 1981
  • Summary: PALEMBANG, SOUTH SUMATRA, INDONESIA 21 - 27 NOVEMBER, 1981 ( REUTERS - WALTER BURGESS) CU sign on back of truck PULL BACK TO people in village in West Java loading belongings onto truck. GVs people loading their belongings onto trucks and leaving village. (4 SHOTS) BANDUNG, WEST JAVA SV Sign at Bandung holding centre and GV people getting off coaches. (2 SHOTS) GV INTE
  • Embargoed: 18th December 1981 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Indonesia, Indonesia
  • City:
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVADM1Z1T9ZG5S8BYPXJME3G8SG8
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: INTRODUCTION: In spite of major economic advances, the problem of poverty remains acute in Indonesia. About 63 million people live in severe poverty - that's more than 40 per cent of the population. Most of these live on Java, one of the most crowded islands in the world. To help overcome the problem, the government has begun moving whole communities from Java to Indonesia's other islands.

    SYNOPSIS: Overcrowding in Java is critical. Although it has less than ten per cent of the land, Java supports 65 per cent of Indonesia's population - that's about 87 million people, and it is growing by two million a year. Millions of peasant farmers eke out a living on tiny plots of land -- sometimes as small as one quarter of a hectare. Others who work for wages earn as little as one dollar a day. The population density is more than 200 per square kilometre, yet large sections of the island are so mountainous cultivation is almost impossible.

    Now the has begun a radical new approach to the problem. It is shipping people en masse to less crowded areas in the outer islands, chiefly Sumatra and Kalimantan, formerly known as Borneo. These people are from crowded west Java. They have gathered in the west Java city of Bandung for transportation to Sumatra.

    Before being moved out they receive medical checks. Special attention is given to instruction in birth control methods. After transmigration, contraception is the second stage in the attack on overpopulation. At present, the population is growing by three per cent a year.

    At the airport, Hercules aircraft wait to take the migrants across the water to Sumatra. They are part of a project to move 4,500 families, from Java to Sumatra. About 22,500 people are involved.

    Finally, the people and their baggage are on board. The plane takes off.


    The end of their flight is the southern Sumatran city of Palembang. They will not stay there long, however. Their destination is a rural area hundreds of kilometres away.

    This is swampy terrain, and one of the best means of transport is by river boat. The Ogan river, and it winds its way from Sumatra's western mountains through Palembang to the South China Sea. The migrants destination is the town of Baturaja, about 300 kilometres upstream from Palembang. The journey is a long one.

    From Baturja it is just a short 30 kilometre trip to the Transmigration site at an area known as Batu Marta. The project is modern, and well provided with facilities. Health care is important. So is agriculture. A seed farm helps make farming more scientific. Rubber plantations provide the settlement with a cash-earning crop. New buildings are going up. Schools have been built, some Islamic, others secular.

    Indonesia's government is pinning its hope on the Transmigration Policy. For in spite of its oil revenues, and its massive increase in rice production, the overall number of poor in Indonesia remains constant. Transmigration is an attempt to solve the problem permanently.
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