Taxi firm fighting for Indonesians with disabilities

By Ainur Rohmah

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (AA) - For Mamik, her blindness used to make negotiating the busy sidewalks of Yogyakarta such an ordeal that she usually preferred to stay at home rather than undertake a journey dodging broken paving stones and potholes.

Local transport services provided little relief for the 45-year-old housewife, with buses often stopping a short of her ultimate destination, meaning undergoing another trial in a city where little allowance is made for people with disabilities.

“It makes me too lazy to go out of the house because everything is too hard,” Mamik, who lives in Yogyakarta’s Bantul district, told Anadolu Agency.

However, the launch of a motorcycle taxi service aimed specifically at people with disabilities has transformed her daily routine.

Difa Tour and Travel, known locally known as Difa-Jek, was founded two years ago. Today, its 17 customized bikes, which are operated by riders with physical disabilities of their own, provide a lifeline for Yogyakarta’s 25,000-strong disabled community.

“They patiently guide me to my destination and they know what they should do,” Mamik said, referring to the Difa-Jek riders. “Now I'm no longer afraid to travel alone.”

Another blind customer, Pardiono, works as a masseur and relies on Difa-Jek to take him to customers.

“I am quite helped by the existence of Difa-Jek, especially to go to locations that cannot be reached by public bus,” he said. Pardiono previously had to walk 3 kilometers (2 miles) from his village on the outskirts of Yogyakarta just to reach a bus.

The service is the brainchild of Triyono, who like many Indonesians uses just one name.

He set up the company in 2015 in an effort to provide a service to people with disabilities that would give them greater independence. He also offers job opportunities and demonstrates the usefulness of people with disabilities to society.

“Disabled people are left behind in many ways,” Triyono said. “One of them is because access to public facilities is very limited. They end up unproductive, though they have the skills and are able to work.”

- Riders with disabilities

Triyono, who uses crutches due to a childhood bout of polio, focused on an inexpensive transport service provided by staff with disabilities.

“Difa-Jek only hires disabled drivers and targets disabled passengers,” he told Anadolu Agency.

“Our difference to other motorcycle taxis are our vehicles have been adapted to the needs of the disabled.” The motorcycles are fitted with sidecars that can accommodate a wheelchair.

The riders are trained not just in navigating the streets of Yogyakarta, a city of around 640,000 on the southern coast of Java, but also in customer service and English.

The company also provides home delivery and tourist city tours, charging 2,500 Indonesian rupiahs ($0.19) per kilometer.

“Drivers get 90 percent of their earned income and only the remaining 10 percent [goes to] operational costs,” Triyono, 36, said.

One of the greatest challenges facing Triyono is the recruitment of riders, not just because of the high standards required of the trainees.

“The hardest thing is to get their spirit and confidence back after years of being underestimated,” he said.

Aris Wahyudi, 31, joined Difa-Jek despite suffering life-changing injuries in a motorbike accident himself.

“There was no-one who respected me but now I can tell them that I can [work] too,” he told Anadolu Agency.

After starting with the firm, cerebral palsy sufferer Tomi Syafi’I, 32, is now able to help provide for his family through the equivalent of around $5 in daily wages, well above the daily minimum for the region.

“In the past, I could not go anywhere but now I can go anywhere without bothering other people, for me this is a gift,” he said.

- Embracing opportunity

Triyono, who also works as an activist for disabled rights, said Difa-Jek staff were working to encourage business ideas that embraced the estimated 30 million people living with disabilities in Indonesia.

“The disabled majority is poor of network, knowledge and confidence, causing them to be not independent,” he said.

“After two years of operation, we in Difa-Jek feel the need to expand our efforts to help those who are in the same boat with us.”

In collaboration with students at the Faculty of Engineering at the Islamic University of Indonesia, Triyono has been designing a website that will connect disabled craftsmen and women with customers.

“Only disabled [people] can sell their handicraft products such as knitted bags, clothes, toys on the website,” he said.

Under the 2011 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which has been ratified by Indonesia, countries are required to take steps to end discrimination against people with disabilities.

However, it was not until last year that the government initiated legislation to protect people with disabilities in areas such as education, public office and employment.

“To realize the mandate of the law also takes a long time,” Triyono said, adding that government action had so far been limited to funding small projects providing aids or training to disabled groups.

“It’s not very effective because it makes us dependent and does not reach all of us," he said.

Triyono and his riders are currently trying to record every person with a disability in Yogyakarta province and list their basic needs to make them more accessible to groups that can provide skills and opportunities.

“There are about a thousand disabled people in Yogyakarta who are not touched by any help from the government,” Triyono said.

He added: “We open up opportunities for disabled people to be empowered, to be more independent, not always pitied.”