Jakarta

In Jakarta people are paid for being passengers.

Ibu Hati is lucky this morning. She earns 45,000 rupees within three hours; that’s about four euros. The 50-year-old mother of two has a job that is rapidly becoming popular in Indonesia’s capital city of Jakarta. She’s a professional hitchhiker. In other words, she gets paid for riding.

During rush hour, only cars with at least three passengers are permitted to drive on the major three and four-lane streets in the centre of Jakarta. This rule is called “3 in 1.” It’s all in a day’s work for the hitchhikers, who call themselves jockeys. They get in so that the drivers are able to drive at all and receive about one euro for every fifteen minutes. Mothers with babies are favoured by the drivers because they are considered safe and are two passengers at once. Some drivers have also gotten themselves regular jockeys whom they pick up every day from Monday to Friday. “There’s always a risk,” says Budi Santono (32), a bank employee who works in the city centre. “I don’t want to have a stranger getting into my car every day.” He’s heard of drivers who were robbed. “But, I have no other choice if I want to get to work on time.”

The life of a jockey has become a lifestyle, says 21-year-old Ecak. “It’s very exciting because I never know what car I’m going to get into today.” He is picked up mostly by young women. But, he won’t get in any car; sometimes the drivers are very peculiar and want to take him home with them. “Then I get out right away.” It is only really dangerous when the police show up. Many jockeys have spent weeks in gaol or were forced to clean the toilets in government buildings. Yet, soon enough they’re back on the kerbsides.