DEPOK, Indonesia – Indonesian single mother Puryanti stiffly stiffens like a robot as she and her five-year-old son, with shiny bodies in silver paint, ask passers-by for an occasional coin at a busy intersection outside the capital Jakarta.
They are among a group of people called “glove silver,” or “silver people,” who use the strategy to get attention, while fighting to get the two heads after the coronavirus has pushed the biggest recession in the world. Southeast Asia last year.
“Some give, some don’t,” Puryanti, 29, said after three months of daily performances, accompanied by her 15-year-old nephew Raffi. “Sometimes someone gives enough.”
On good days, the Javanese, who was a housewife before her divorce, can earn about 70,000 rupees ($ 5), enough to spend and pay the rent.
Puryanti uses a homemade paint, a mixture of screen printing powder and cooking oil, to coat their bodies and add a dramatic effect to the robot’s action. She says silver paint does not cause negative effects.
“I’m not ashamed to work like that,” he added. “The important thing is that’s all for my kids.”
The pandemic, which caused Indonesia’s first recession in more than two decades, with a shrinking economy of nearly 2.2% in the fourth quarter, has been harsh for millions in the informal sector who need to get out of home to make a living.
Indonesia’s poor represent 26.42 million out of a population of more than 270 million, according to government statistics, a figure that grew by 1.63 million over the period from September 2019 to the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
Puryanti has checked with police that he can now continue to work as a “silver person” as long as he follows coronavirus measures such as wearing a mask, but has higher ambitions.
“I want to have my own business,” he added. “I want to open a small store but I don’t have money for that.”