The Scarlet Sticker, Transparency or the Weight of Shame in Bojonegoro?

In the quiet neighborhoods of Bojonegoro, a new and polarizing visual marker has appeared on the doorframes of thousands. It is a small, adhesive rectangle, yet it carries the heavy gravity of a social verdict. It reads: "Keluarga Miskin"—Poor Family.

For the regional government, these stickers are tools of surgical precision, designed to cut through the murky "chaos" of poverty data. For others, they represent a "scarlet letter" that puts a public face on private struggle.

The Logic of Exposure

The policy, as explained by the Head of the Bojonegoro Social Affairs Office, Agus Susetyo Hardiyanto, during a candid discussion on the Dewan Jegrank podcast on January 9, 2026, is framed not as an act of shaming, but as an "ikhtiar"—a sincere spiritual and administrative effort toward truth.

The challenge is a classic Indonesian bureaucratic nightmare: overlapping data. By integrating the National Socio-Economic Single Data (DTSEN) with local regional data (Damisda), Bojonegoro is attempting to synchronize a list of 200,000 households. As of early 2026, over 50,000 homes have already been marked.

"Poverty is dynamic," Agus remarked. "A family’s status can rise or fall. With these stickers, the community becomes the ultimate evaluator. They see, in real-time, who truly deserves the aid."

The Psychology of the Wall

Bojonegoro follows a trail blazed by Surabaya and Gunungkidul. It is a strategy of "radical transparency." The underlying theory is psychological: the sticker acts as a mirror. For those who have climbed out of poverty but remain on the subsidy list, the sticker serves as a silent nudge to "self-graduate"—to voluntarily relinquish aid so it may go to those in more desperate need.

Yet, the sticker is more than a label; it is a key. In Bojonegoro’s digital ecosystem, this physical marker links a family to the RDKK fertilizer subsidies and Universal Health Coverage (UHC). It is a badge of eligibility in a complex web of social safety nets.

From Labels to Livestock

The ultimate goal, however, is to make the stickers disappear. Through initiatives like Gayatri (Independent Layer Chicken Farming Movement), the administration hopes to transform "beneficiaries" into "entrepreneurs." The ambition is to replace the sticker of poverty with the dignity of a steady income.

For those who feel the sting of the label too sharply, the government offers an exit. Residents can refuse the sticker, though such a refusal triggers a formal re-evaluation of their status. "We are opening call centers for clarification," Agus concluded, signaling that while the data is fixed on the wall, the conversation remains open.

As Bojonegoro watches the red ink dry on its citizens' walls, the city stands at a crossroads between the cold efficiency of data and the delicate preservation of human dignity.