Child servants vulnerable to abuse

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has paid no attention to the plight of child domestics, many of whom have fallen victim to sexual harassment by their employers, activists say.

Aris Merdeka Sirait, the secretary-general of the National Committee for Child Protection, said on Monday that child domestics, whose number now reached 1.8 million, had to cope with sexual harassment and physical abuse at the hands of their employers due mainly to the absence of a legal basis for protecting them.

According to the committee, at least 1.8 million Indonesian children were working as servants across the country in 2000, up from 1.5 million in 1999.

The sharp increase was attributed to the current prolonged economic crisis.

Many of these were young females, who were often abused both sexually and physically.

"The level of abuse against child domestics is now out of control and must be stopped. We would therefore urge local governments to at least issue by-laws to protect these children," Aris told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

"Their employers can do whatever they want to the child servants as the children aren't aware of their rights," he added.

Aris was commenting on a study presented at the ongoing Manila Forum on Child Domestic Workers in Asia, which showed that more and more children in Asia, including Indonesia, worked as servants amid rapid modernization and widespread poverty.

It also highlighted that abuse was more rampant and more hidden than ever among Asia's child servants.

"Asia is home to more than 60 percent of working children worldwide," the study said.

"Child labor has increased. Abuses are more rampant and more hidden nowadays," it continued.

By-laws to protect child domestics should cover important issues such as limits on working hours and a guarantee that child servants would be educated.

The House of Representatives (DPR) is currently deliberating a bill on child protection. The bill stipulates, among other things, that anyone found guilty of exploiting children economically or sexually would be liable to up to ten-years imprisonment or a fine of Rp 200 million (US$22,000).

The bill, expected to serve as a reference for protecting child servants, was originally scheduled for endorsement by the DPR earlier this month, but was put back due to unresolved issues involving the article on adoption of children.

Pandji Putranto, the national program manager for the International Labor Organization's International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor, agreed with Aris that regional governments must issue rulings to protect child servants.

He also said that the poor conditions of child servants could be resolved by starting to bring the servant issue into the public domain rather than keeping it hidden in the private domain.