Poverty hampers effort to stop child labor<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Severe economic hardship and political instability have
\nundermined efforts to eradicate child labor in the country,
\nMinister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea said on
\nMonday.<\/p>\n
\"Child labor is closely linked to the poverty beleaguering
\nfamilies, poor health and lack of education opportunities for
\nIndonesian children,\" Nuwa Wea said on Monday when unveiling an
\nInternational Labor Organization (ILO) report titled A Future
\nWithout Child Labor in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The economic crisis, which has plagued the country since 1997,
\nhas effectively reduced people's purchasing power, increasing the
\nnumber of people living under the poverty line to around 40
\nmillion people, or roughly 20 percent of the country's 215
\nmillion population.<\/p>\n
This has also forced poor families to send underaged children
\nto work. According to the latest data issued by the Central
\nBureau of Statistics (BPS), at least 2.3 million Indonesian
\nchildren aged between 10 and 14, and 3.8 million children aged
\nbetween five and 18 work to support their families.<\/p>\n
\"The figure might not be correct because it is extremely
\ndifficult to obtain an accurate figure on the number of child
\nlabor in Indonesia,\" said ILO Jakarta director Alan Boulton
\nwithout elaborating.<\/p>\n
Nuwa Wea appealed to all social components to join hands in
\nfighting against child labor, saying it was impossible for the
\ngovernment to do it alone.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has ratified ILO Convention No. 138 and incorporated
\nit into Law No. 20\/1999, which bans, among other things, the
\nemployment of children under 15 years old.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration is working on a
\nbill on the training and protection of workers, which includes
\nbanning employing underaged children.<\/p>\n
Worldwide, the report said that some 352 million children aged
\nbetween five and 17 years old were involved in various forms of
\neconomic activities, of which 179 million children were involved
\nin employment that did not only harm them physically and
\npsychologically but also threatened their lives.<\/p>\n
Geographically, the Asia-Pacific region has the highest number
\nof child workers, with 120 million children employed, sub-Sahara
\nAfrica second with 48 million, followed by South America and the
\nCaribbean with 17.4 million, and the Middle East and North Africa
\nwith 13.4 million.<\/p>\n
The report also revealed that child labor was not confined to
\ndeveloping or poor countries. The report showed that
\napproximately 2.5 million of the world's child laborers were in
\nindustrialized countries, while another 2.4 million were found in
\nnewly independent countries.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/poverty-hampers-effort-to-stop-child-labor-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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