Yogya (KU) – The practices of prostitution and concubinage in Javanese rural areas had already occurred in the Dutch colonial era, especially since the opening of the Daendels roads and steam railway in 1808 and 1883 respectively, resulting in more dynamic economic activities in Java. Many old and middle-aged women responded to the transportation routes by doing various economic activities. The development of the railways and the opening of the Daendels roads created a new colonial policy formation which was previously dominated by the urban society as the main actors, and in the development, rural communities began to integrate in the economic activity of the city.
During the 1930s crisis, many female workers in weaving, furniture and ceramics industry were laid off. But at the same time there were plenty of stalls and village market emerging to respond to the infrastructure development along the northern coasts of Java. The crisis made many rural farmers from the dry village such as those in Grobogan, Jepara, Pati, Juwana and Demak wander and travel in search of work. "At first, there are men only, but then followed by women and children. These travellers usually spend their leisure smoking opium, gambling and seeing dancers perform ronggeng (traditional dance)," said the historian of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, UGM, Arif Akhyat, in a seminar ‘Sexualization in Early Twentieth Century’s Java’ held at the Center for the Rural and Regional Development Studies at UGM, Thursday (8/4) afternoon.
Arif explains, the presence of the ronggeng and ledhek dancers and the practice of concubinage seemed to appear along with not only the agricultural economy involution but also urbanization due to intensified rural-urban economic network. Even the practices were undertaken around the plantations and the stations such as Tawang station (Semarang), Beos station (Jakarta), Senin Station (Jakarta), Kestalan Station (Balapan-Solo). In addition, in Batavia (Jakarta) several prostitution places were formed such as those in Bendungan Hilir, Bongkaran, Kali Malang, Kaligot, Gang Mangga, Petamburan, and Gang Hamber.This rampant prostitution, according to Arif, caused an outbreak of syphilis. Between the years 1902-1912 approximately 6.5 percent European, 5.47 percent native and 13.11 percent Chinese people were reported getting infected by syphilis. "In 1811, Yogyakarta is the first city that established a special hospital for syphilis by the Dutch colonial government.â€
Furthermore, medical schools were established to handle venereal diseases in Bandung and Batavia," said Arif. He said that prostitutes were usually classified into three groups: the upper class, middle class and lower class. Upper class was usually the Eurasian and European, middle class Chinese and Japanese while lower class Malayan or Javanese.
"In 1939, it was reported that the fee for upper class was 2.50 gulden, 1-2 gulden for middle class and only 1 gulden for lower class," he explained. Arif acknowledged, to the period before the Independence, the Indies people who were the human evidence of concubinage in Dutch colonial times could still be found, mostly in Semarang, Batavia and Surabaya. Marked by numerous practices of polygamy popular in the year of 1920, at least 1.4 percent of the total population of the Province of Yogyakarta Special Region practiced polygamy, East Java 1.6 percent, Central Java 2.3 percent, and West Java 1.8 percent.