of Industry and Trade. The Social Department may also provide funding for social groups in
the villages.
The chairman of the Youth Wing, Weitema, also leads a youth group, Karang Taruna,
established in 1978 by the Social Department to stimulate economic activities among youths.
The group planned various enterprises, amongst others carp breeding, but none has been
very successful.
Seri has no KUD.
14.2.3 Role of women
Many women in Seri are teachers or civil servants. Women also play a key role in trading
products from their forest gardens and the fishery. They are important providers of household
income.
Despite their importance for the village economy, women are generally not involved in
decision-making. They rarely attend meetings. Occasionally, for example, when guests from
the district level visit the village, the village head will ask the women to prepare a small
presentation on a topic that relates to the purpose of the visit. In other cases, the church
organization represents the women, but mainly on women’s issues such as child care programs.
Nevertheless, the feeling of consensus decision-making is strong in Seri: only 3% of the fishers
in our sample considered women to be completely outside of the decision-making processes.
In reality, women have a strong implanted feeling of inferiority vis-à-vis the men-governors
in the village. When asked about their input in fisheries management, they said that “they
have no opinion” and they tend to agree with what is decided by others. Only few women
would like to be represented in government meetings.
Women generally seem less concerned with the situation in the village than in the household.
Here things could be improved, especially in the light of the current monetary crisis. Merry
Abrahamsz, a woman from Seri, explained: “Women would like to manage the family better,
and plan things together with their husbands. The wife should help to find some more money
and try to manage the money better.”
14.2.4 Profile of fishers
Nearly all the respondents in our sample were born in Seri. A large proportion (72%) had
only elementary education. A relatively large number (66%) of respondents are under 45 years
of age. The fishers’ household consists of 5.7 people on an average. Children who have left,
have gone to work or school (few left for marriage). Two women were interviewed.
On an average, the respondents were 42 years old and they have been fishing for 19 years.
The average hours of fishing is 7.6 hours per day, with 5-10 hours at sea being most common.
Although many of the respondents (86%) are landowners, on average they derive 65% of
their income from fishing. Additional income is derived from farming. Only 7% have an
externally derived income (which is relatively low), but the average contribution from outside
is substantial: Rp775,000 per year (USD310, early 1997 rate).
The economic indicator of the fishers’ sample for Seri was made up of adding scores for land
ownership, boat type, house and gears (Section 2.5). Nearly 72% of the respondents had type
Dusun Seri, Desa Urimesing, Ambon Island 183