Activist desires commission for child protection

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)