The needs of women who inject drugs have largely been ignored by existing programmes and policies in Indonesia. The Indonesian Drug Users Network supported the implementation of the Perempuan Bersuara study to explore health needs, sexual and injecting risk behaviours, gender-based violence, contact with law enforcement, and harm reduction service accessibility among more than 700 women who inject drugs across multiple sites in West Java, Greater Jakarta, and Banten province.
As people who use and inject drugs and direct beneficiaries of Indonesia’s harm reduction and HIV response, we feel that the complex needs of women in our community have been neglected for far too long. There is an urgent need to develop gender-sensitive, low-threshold programmes and evidence-based drug policies that accommodate and respond to the specific needs of this group.