Mediaseruni.co.ID – For decades, an elderly couple has been living in an extremely unfit dwelling in Pajaten II Hamlet, Pajaten Village, Cibuaya District, Karawang Regency, West Java, Indonesia. The house is deemed uninhabitable as it is dilapidated in all areas. At any moment, the elderly couple’s abode could collapse.
Mak Inem (75), along with her husband affectionately known as Abah, indeed desired to repair their severely dilapidated house. However, they lacked the financial means to do so. Both of them relied solely on selling bundles of rice seedlings to sustain their livelihood. They sold these bundles for Rp5000 per unit.
“Our income from selling rice seedlings ranges between twenty to thirty thousand rupiahs per day. However, all of it is spent on daily necessities,” said Mak Inem during an interview with this media outlet on Saturday, July 1, 2023.
Every day, the elderly couple had to live in fear, dreading the collapse of their dwelling. Each night, they couldn’t sleep soundly, haunted by the worry of their house crumbling.
Their fear escalated during heavy rainfalls. Apart from leaks, they were afraid that their house would be struck by strong winds and collapse.
The local village government also recognized the condition of Mak Inem and Abah’s living situation. The elderly couple’s house had been proposed for the “rutilahu” program and had even been surveyed by officials from the Karawang PRKP Department. However, to this day, Mak Inem and Abah’s house has yet to be renovated.
“A few months ago, officials from the Karawang PRKP Department conducted a survey. But until now, there has been no progress on the rutilahu program,” said one of the village officials from Pajaten, Cebong. (***)
