Despite the high levels of regional and international investment in Bali’s tourism sector many people are not beneficiaries of rapid development, whilst at the same time they are impacted by loss of arable land, environmental degradation and development driven inflation on the prices of everyday basic commodities. In addition, development linked overfishing has reduced traditional job opportunities in this sector for coastal communities. Labor-related immigration into Bali has increased competition in the employment market and this particularly impacts the poor and unskilled from traditional agricultural and coastal economies. Illiterate and unskilled people have limited work opportunities and are increasingly unemployed, underemployed and underpaid.
Women are particularly vulnerable to these pressures:
- In poor families, girls face a gender bias with respect to education with only 2 girls for every 8 boys going to primary school.
- Approximately 208,000 women are illiterate in Bali. Salaries of unskilled women are usually 50% – 70% less than the Official Bali Area minimum salary.
- The percentage of female managers is extremely low in Bali. This is because of strong cultural views and prejudices of the role of women in the work place.
- Most women have no rights to any of their fathers’ family assets and go to their husbands’ family upon marriage. If they are married into a poor or corrupt family they may find themselves working for nothing.
- If men remarry, their first wives are often abandoned with nothing upon divorce. If their father’s family does not take them back, they have no means to provide for themselves.
How ROLE is helping:
ROLE seeks to help these unskilled disadvantaged women by providing accessible basic education and vocational training. ROLE works to increase the employment opportunities available to women from poor communities by providing accessible education, vocational training,and job placement as well as assistance in starting up eco-friendly micro businesses. In addition ROLE Foundation seeks to revitalize coastal environments and through sustainability education and environmental assistance projects.
