Uneven infrastructure development in Indonesia has once again claimed lives. While urban areas enjoy easy medical access, communities in remote villages must risk their lives facing extreme terrain just to obtain basic healthcare. The right to health for pregnant women is often ignored, forcing them to undergo emergency journeys that threaten their safety when they are about to give birth.
A heartbreaking tragedy recently befell Masnia, a pregnant woman from Ratte Village, Polewali Mandar Regency, West Sulawesi. Due to the lack of healthcare facilities and adequate road access, Masnia had to be carried by residents working together on a stretcher for 9 kilometers across a steep path. After a hard five-hour struggle during that emergency journey, the life of her unborn baby could not be saved.
A similar event also occurred in South Tapanuli Regency, North Sumatra, where a mother named Tuty Daulay lost her first child after being carried for six hours along a footpath untouched by development. Not only outside Java, this concerning incident also befell a pregnant woman in Tegal Regency, Central Java, who had to be carried on a bamboo stretcher for 3 kilometers through a teak forest and across a river to reach the nearest healthcare facility.
This harsh reality has sparked sharp criticism of the government's development priorities. Budget allocations and the acceleration of certain project programs are seen as contrasting sharply with the slow fulfillment of vital needs, such as auxiliary community health centers (puskesmas pembantu) and decent village roads. The absence of healthcare facilities in isolated villages proves a stark inequality in fulfilling the basic rights of citizens.
Access to proper healthcare services is a constitutional right of every Indonesian citizen that must be fulfilled by the state without exception. The government is urged to immediately evaluate its development priorities by prioritizing the provision of emergency medical facilities and road access in remote areas, to prevent the recurrence of humanitarian tragedies that claim the lives of mothers and babies.
