Activist desires commission for child protection
JAKARTA (JP): A children's activist underlined yesterday the importance of establishing an independent commission to oversee children's conditions so as to provide more protection for them, especially in child labor.
Conditions of child labor have for years been poor because of the ignorance of employers on one side and the improper handling by the government on the other, Arist Merdeka Sirait told The Jakarta Post yesterday.
Arist said that the establishment of the child protection commission would be similar to the National Commission on Human Rights.
"It must be an independent body managed by dedicated people from various backgrounds," Arist said at the end of a three-day child labor camping activity in Cibubur, East Jakarta, yesterday.
One hundred and twenty children, between 12 and 17 years old, who worked for toy, shoe, rattan, garment, food, and ceramic factories in Tangerang, Bekasi and Bogor, participated at the camp.
Arist said the commission should have the authority to investigate particular problems in which children are involved, ranging from violence and prostitution to labor.
"If the government hesitates to establish the commission, some non-governmental organizations, which are concerned about child issues here, have expressed interest in handling the case," said Arist, of the Indonesian Committee for Creative Education of the Child Labor Foundation.
He said conditions of children needed to be given more serious attention to by all related parties from government institutions to common people.
Arist lambasted the government for denying the existence of child labor in Indonesia on one hand, but on the other hand it signed the International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor.
Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief insisted, before leaving for Turkey in 1996 for the International Labor Organization meeting, that there was no child labor in the country.
"But the government allows children who are under 14 years old to work, if they are facing serious financial problems," Arist said.
Financial problems
He said child labor would continue in line with financial problems and the demand for cheap labor in the industrial sector.
Arist said the foundation recorded around 212,000 children, between the ages of 10 and 15 years old, working at thousands of factories in Tangerang, with 92 in Bogor, and around 72 in Bekasi.
The small number of children working in Bogor and Bekasi was due to the small number of children listed at the foundation's open house.
Arist said prohibiting children from working would not solve child labor problems.
"I think it's realistic to support child labor as long as it's fair and properly handled by employers and the government, because there's no way for us to prohibit children from working when we know they need the money to support their families," Arist said.
He said children workers also had basic rights of nourishment, education, creative development and self expression, which should be protected by the government and employers. (07/cst)