Child servants vulnerable to abuse
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.