By ANITA RACHMAN

Original article at http://blogs.wsj.com/indonesiarealtime/2015/02/17/migrant-group-defends-indonesian-maid-program/

A migrant group is raising alarms about President Joko Widodo’s plan to gradually stop sending Indonesians to work abroad as maids, calling it “discriminatory” against women.

Millions of Indonesian women leave for comparatively higher paid work in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and elsewhere.

But a series of high-profile abuse cases—including  one in which a judge last week found a Hong Kong employer guilty of assaulting her Indonesian maid—have sparked concerns about whether the women are vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse, as well as not being paid their promised wages.

President Widodo recently said he wants to set a “clear road map” for how Indonesia can stop sending women abroad to work as all-purpose maids. “We have to have pride and dignity,” the president said.

Instead, migrant workers would be more specialized.

But Anis Hidayah, director of the nonprofit group that focuses on migrant workers Migrant Care, called the idea “discriminatory for women.”

She said ending access for Indonesian women would violate the Constitution, which guarantees that every citizen has the right to “get good jobs and protection from the nation, wherever they work.”

“We strongly protest Mr. Widodo’s plan,” she said.

Manpower Minister Hanif Dhakiri said in a statement on Monday that in the future, “well-equipped and skilled” workers from Indonesia will head to other countries.

The ministry aims to send each worker for just one specific task–unlike today where a maid is tasked to do various jobs in a household, including cooking, babysitting, cleaning up and caring for the elderly.

Ms. Hidayah said Mr. Widodo should instead fix the placement system for domestic workers and guarantee their safety.

“The solution is for the government to protect its migrant workers, not avoid and ban [them going],” Ms. Hidayah said.