Child labor a 'multidimensional' problem

Child labor a 'multidimensional' problem

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Hendra, an 11-year-old street beggar and trash collector, stays
silent and stares at the sky when asked whether he wants to
continue his education.

He has given up on his dream of sitting in a classroom since
his parents moved out of Jasinga in Bogor to Jakarta three years
ago. The move forced him to quit after just two years of
elementary school.

Now he spends his mornings helping his father collect garbage
and his afternoons singing at an intersection in the Senayan area
of Central Jakarta for small change.

Getting Hendra and 7 million other Indonesian child laborers
back in school is more complex than simply providing enough
chairs for them, according to a national seminar jointly
organized by the International Labor Organization and the
National Development Planning Board on Monday.

Hendra comes from a family of six, who are dependent on the
extra Rp 30,000 (US$3.1) income he collects from handouts on the
streets -- as is the case for most of the other Indonesian
children who have been forced into work due to poverty.

The seminar on Monday was aimed at seeking guidelines for the
implementation of a National Strategic Action Plan to eradicate
the worst forms of child labor by 2009.

For the last few years, the government has planned a two-
pronged program, which combines efforts to decrease the number of
out-of-school children by providing transitional education grants
and an informal education program with efforts to build capacity
among poor families through job-training and capital provision.

In its latest survey, ILO found that one in five school-aged
children from poor families had no access to education and
experienced various kinds of exploitation at work -- both in the
formal and informal sectors.

"Child labor is a multi-dimensional problem, which cannot be
resolved solely by the education authorities," Irwanto, an expert
on child labor explained.

He asserted that the form of education provided for child
laborers must consider several factors.

"They lack nutrition, are already exhausted from work, lost
what they learned previously and some do not see the importance
of education," Irwanto said.

Therefore, he suggested that the format of education for the
children be time-flexible, provide only the necessary life-
skills, vocational and basic studies, and adopt a more
experimental approach.

Irwanto pointed out several past failures where a large amount
of donated money had been pumped into programs that were not
sustainable.

"There were only 12 child laborers left in school at the end
of the program, after it began with 70, because there was no
cooperation with the parents, the employers or the children
themselves," he said.

Ahmad Marzuki from the Child Labor Network (Jarak) said that
forms of education for the children should be specified according
to the characteristics of their work. The intervention method to
approach the children should also differ from that targeting
labor-prone children to actual child laborers.

"For those who are out of school and likely looking for work,
we still can send them to school," he said. "But, a child working
in a factory cannot be forced to take full-time classes."

Ahmad emphasized the need for an integrated intervention,
which would include compulsory education, poverty eradication and
social services.

Meanwhile, ILO country representative Alan Boulton said that a
decrease in school fees would help bring the child laborers back
to school.

"Most of them are at work because their parents could not
afford to pay for their school fees," he said.

The Ministry of National Education has claimed that compulsory
education is free of charge for children from poor families.
However, the promised funding for schools to provide such free
education will only be delivered in August at the earliest, while
the new academic year will start in July. (003)