Abused kids flee to life on streets

Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It's impossible not to notice the small scar on Mamo's shaved head as he sits under the Senen flyover in Central Jakarta, taking a rest from hustling for money as a busker in the dusty, traffic-clogged area.

It's his permanent reminder of why he left home. It was inflicted when his mother beat him with a broom.

"I was beaten by my mother after I stole some of my father's money. That was the worst, so I ran away," said the moon-faced eight-year-old, whose real name is Sumarno, and comes from a poor farming family in Karawang, West Java.

"I won't return home," he said. "I like it here with my friends."

Mamo, among his friends Nandi and Pendek, who are both 10 years old, still has something to be proud of, for he is the only one of the three to have attended school.

While he speaks of his past with no hint of sadness or sentimentality, counselors and rights activists warn that Sumarno, and many other children like him, will bear deep emotional scars from physical and emotional abuse in the home.

Other family relatives and neighbors will turn a blind eye or consider that there is nothing wrong, that it is the parents' right to discipline their child.

Often, the streets are the only refuge for these young victims of domestic violence. They are forced to live by their wits, earning what they can by busking, begging and sometimes even selling themselves, becoming prey to new forms of abuse and exploitation.

Inevitably, they grow into reckless, rebellious adults, for whom family and conventional values have no meaning.

Dark-skinned Pendek, so called because of his short height, is from Lampung, but he came to Jakarta three years ago with his elder brother. In the time since, Pendek's brother was killed when he fell off a train in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta.

He fled a tough life of working on a plantation.

"We were forced to work in an oil palm plantation. It was real hard work -- day and night -- and we couldn't stand it, so we ran off," he said, recalling that work began before dawn, and daily meals consisted of dull rice and greens.

"We lived in a village. My father was sick, he couldn't work. My elder brother and my younger sister all went off to the plantation."

Nandi spoke of how, when his father passed away, his mother remarried and he became neglected.

"My mother was too busy with her new babies. I was often scolded. She was so fussy, always making a big deal out of everything I did."

Data from the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas-PA) shows that the number of street kids is constantly increasing. This is especially true during times of crisis, when many stressed parents take their frustrations out on their children.

According to the Komnas data, in the year 2000 there were some 40,000 street kids in 12 provincial capitals; that number more than doubled in the following year to 85,000.

Of course, these are only official statistics, and may not reflect the true number.

"We believe the real number is much higher because many areas were not included," the commission's executive director, Arist Merdeka Sirait, said.

He added that there were many non-governmental groups (NGOs) working with the kids, but few used the correct approaches in handling the children, while the government has yet to formulate "real" actions to address the issues.

"Many NGOs are working on project-based programs, so when the term is passed, it's over and they turn to other programs. Some of the older NGOs use the community-based approach in which they involve families and also the neighbors," he told The Jakarta Post recently.

Yet street kids, the most visible example of children who have suffered abuse, are only part of the problem, which involves dysfunctional families and the poverty that leads to psychological stress.

"The parents, too, have to be counseled for change," he said.

He gave an example of a pilot project on a shelter for street kids funded by an international development program a few years ago. It fell through because there were no sustainable activities or clearly defined objectives.

"Shelters are only to help to reintroduce the children to home and family values -- because the two things are missing in their lives. Children can't just stay without any good reasons keeping them there," he said.

While the children were at the shelter, activists should approach the families, and prepare them to receive the returning children, he said.

It is not an easy job -- either for the government or for the NGOs -- particularly when it comes to dealing with families who believe that the outsiders are interfering in their personal affairs.

Nevertheless, "something has to be done," said Arist.