City to set up task forces to help the poor

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration plans to establish working groups in every subdistrict to help assist the Social Office in helping about 600,000 poor people.

Head of the city Social Office, Emon Setia Sumantri, said yesterday that the working groups, whose members will be volunteers, are expected to intensify the city administration's efforts to help the poor achieve a better life.

The 600,000 people who are said to have "social problems" include street children, beggars, prostitutes, former convicts and drug addicts.

According to the Social Office, as of last year Jakarta had 683,813 people in need of social help, of which only 29,102 had received attention from the office. A further 51,111 of the total received attention from private organizations, the office says.

Emon said about 9,300 volunteers, 857 social organizations and 74,170 members of youth organizations are expected to help the office with the project.

"At the moment there are only 93 institutions, 39 of which are state-owned social institutions, attending to the needy people. The other 54 institutions are managed by private organizations," he said.

Emon said the office faced several constraints in dealing with the people. "Urbanization is the first thing to blame for the increasing number of vagrants, while getting accurate data and the number of such people is not that easy," he said. He added that low-quality training and employers' reluctance to hire rehabilitated people did not help the rehabilitation efforts.

"Another thing that curtails the programs is the fact that most of the people to be rehabilitate have a very limited educational background," he said.

One of the working groups' jobs will be collecting accurate data on the number of the people to be assisted. "This is very important," he said.

Emon did not mention money as one of the constraints, nor did he say how much money has been earmarked for the program.

Many people have been skeptical about the rehabilitation program as many of the rehabilitated people are reported to return to their old ways soon after they completing the programs.

Emon acknowledged this, saying that the establishment of the working groups is expected to minimize such shortcomings. "It's impossible for the city administration to do such a job alone, without private volunteers," he said.

He said that, in the long run, the working groups will be meaningful in narrowing social gaps and increasing the poor's standard of living. (yns)