Child workers under health threats: ILO

Child workers under health threats: ILO

JAKARTA (JP): A local official of the International Labor
Organization (ILO) called for greater public attention toward
child workers, whose daily activities expose them to grave health
and safety threats.

Pandji Putranto, the national program coordinator for the
International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor, named
two kinds of labor that place children particularly at risk. The
two are agriculture works and domestic works.

"Girls who work as domestic servants away from home are
frequent victims of physical, mental and sexual abuses," he said
yesterday. "Efforts to help children should be more sharply
focused on the most abusive and hazardous forms of child labor."

Pandji was announcing the plan to hold the Second National
Conference on Child Labor Problems in Indonesia on July 24 to
July 26 at Wisma Kenasih, Bogor, West Java. Coordinating Minister
for People's Welfare Azwar Anas will open the gathering which
will hear from Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief.

A June 1996 report of the International Labor Organization
revealed another "extremely serious problem" with child labor,
namely child slavery. "It exists here, too," Pandji said.

He cited a number of cases where children were forced to work
on plantations or at sea in order to pay off their parents' debts
in the provinces of North Sumatra and East Java.

Pandji pointed out that child labor contributes significantly
to a family's economy. "Girls who help their parents baby sitting
actually contribute to the family's income. It's not fair if
people think those girls are not working," Pandji said.

The government and many social organizations, however, pay
greater attention to street children, he said.

"Many programs and funds are given to help street children.
None of the programs directly focus on child labor," Pandji said.

"India provides US$300 million to help solve the problem of
child labor. Here, we receive only a small amount, considering
the $250,000 allocated by the Ministry of Social Services for
street children," Pandji said.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics data in 1994,
there were about 1.9 million children between 10 to 14 years old
who were considered economically active children. Seventy percent
of them were recorded as working in the agricultural sector, but
experts believe the figure could be higher. (31)