Administration told to make regulations on child welfare
Administration told to make regulations on child welfare
JAKARTA (JP): In a campaign to help overcome the problem of
street children, activists called on the city administration on
Wednesday to set up regulations on child welfare.
As home to around 11,000 street children under 16 years old
who sell goods and beg for money and where student brawls occur
almost every day, Jakarta is definitely not a child-friendly
city, they said.
Executive director of the National Commission for Child
Protection Arist Merdeka Sirait said the administration only
referred to City Bylaw No. 1/1988 when discussing street
children.
The bylaw prohibits children from being on the streets as they
spoil the beauty of the city.
"Prohibiting them will only mean sweeping the kids off the
street," Arist said on the sidelines of a seminar on How to Make
Jakarta a Child-friendly City at City Hall.
He said the administration should also provide education and
protection for them.
"There are some shelters for these kids, but they have been
proven ineffective and lack an educational mission," Arist said.
He said the regulations should stipulate measures to prevent
children from becoming street children and include measures to
protect them.
The regulations should also stipulate the necessity to provide
rehabilitation for the street children and facilitate the
reintegration of the children with their families, he said.
"But if the administration fails to facilitate the reunion of
the children with their families, then we have to redefine the
meaning of 'state' children," Arist added.
Addressing the same seminar, children's rights activist
Mohammad Farid said the administration should focus on providing
more spaces for children to play.
"There should be more playgrounds and parks, but they must be
accessible to the public from all walks of life," said Farid, a
coordinator of the Yogyakarta-based Indonesian Free Children
Secretariat (Samin).
"The next priority is to establish procedures and regulations
on child welfare," he added.
He said the administration should first launch its ideas
through effective campaigns.
"And then, the administration has to stipulate an enforcement
scheme, recovery program and educational program," he said.
"The scheme and programs should not only be established for
the children, but also for the police and public order
officials ... so that they carry out their job with a child-
friendly approach, rather than a violent one," Farid said.
Deputy Governor for Social Welfare Affairs Djailani admitted
that the administration had yet to maximize its efforts to
increase the children's welfare.
"The problem is that the children are on the streets also due
to economic problems," he said. (09)