Begging for a living: Indonesia's silvermen struggle to make ends meet

New Straits Times

12-05-2025

JAKARTA: On a rainy day in Indonesia's capital Jakarta, three men coated in metallic paint known as the "manusia silver", or silvermen, brave the elements at an intersection near a mall to ask drivers for change.
It is an arresting act that comes with health risks, one some young Indonesians feel is necessary to make ends meet as the cost of living worsens and jobs dwindle after the Covid-19 pandemic.
"I'm ashamed to earn money like this. I want to find a real, more dignified job," says Mr Ari Munandar, 25. "But the embarrassment disappears when you remember that your daughter and your wife are at home."
Barefoot, dressed only in shorts and daubed head to toe by the irritating paint, Mr Ari, his brother Keris and their friend Riyan Ahmad Fazriyansah each take a lane in the road.
When the cars come to a stop, they strike robotic poses in front of the drivers.
"Good afternoon, have a nice drive," says Mr Ari.
The poses have little meaning other than to attract cash.
"I do them because one day I saw a friend earn more by doing them," he says, moving between cars, holding out a bucket for donations.
On a good day, they can pocket up to 200,000 rupiah (about RM51), but they typically earn around 120,000 rupiah.
That is much less than Jakarta's monthly minimum wage of five million rupiah, and barely enough to cover daily expenses.
"I'm not going to eat lunch; just drink and smoke," says Mr Ari.
Every cent counts in a country where prices have risen steadily in recent years.
The price for a kilogram of rice, the archipelago's main staple, jumped by 27 per cent between 2015 and 2025, according to statistics agency data.
And behind the paint, the friends are clearly undernourished.
None are taller than 1.72m nor weigh more than 55kg.
A lack of employment opportunities is the main cause of young men and women taking to the streets, they say.
"Since I was made redundant in 2019, I've been begging," says Mr Ari. "Before that, I worked cleaning toilets."
According to government data, the number of people living below the poverty line in metropolitan Jakarta – a megalopolis of 11 million people – was up from 362,000 in 2019 to 449,000 as at September 2024.
"Many young people with few qualifications between the ages of 20 and 40 have found themselves unemployed," says Mr Bhima Yudhistira, executive director of the Centre of Economic and Law Studies. "Even though there is no national count, there has been a huge rise in begging in Jakarta after the pandemic of 2021."
After five hours at the intersection, the group returns home by hitching a ride on a tuk-tuk.
The three pile into the back, counting their meagre earnings and lighting a cigarette to share.
Once dropped off, they walk by a polluted river and across a railway line to their Jakarta slum.
Far from the capital's high-rises, children play near the tracks to the rhythm of the trains as Mr Ari makes his way back to remove the silver.
The paint, similar to that used for screen-printing on fabric, is not easy to remove. Squatting in front of a well and buckets filled with water, he splashes his body before scrubbing fiercely, his one-year-old daughter Arisya watching.
"At first, the paint burned and I had a blister on my neck, but now it stings only my eyes," he says.
The shower reveals a new, younger man. Once dry, he heads home to play with Arisya.
"As soon as I'm here, I forget all the fatigue and the hardship," he says, smiling. "But I hope she never does what I do." - AFP