Government told to eradicate child labor within four years

Government told to eradicate child labor within four years

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The International Labor Organization (ILO) urged the Indonesian
government on Tuesday to phase out the worst forms of child labor
in the next four years in view of the increasing exploitation of
children in the country.

The chief technical advisor of the ILO Jakarta office Carmello
Noriel said on Tuesday that after making the commitment to ratify
a convention on the complete eradication of such inhumane
practices, Indonesia needed to act first on the eradication of
the worst forms of child labor.

"By the strong commitment especially from key ministers this
morning... we can gradually and systematically eliminate
significant numbers of the worst forms of child labor in the next
four years," Noriel said during a seminar on child labor here.

Noriel hopes that in the next five years Indonesia will manage
to eradicate child-trafficking for prostitution, and the presence
of child workers in the footwear sector, offshore fishing, and
the sale, production and trafficking of drugs, five areas of work
deemed to be the most harmful for children.

According to an ILO estimate in 2002, there are 250 million
child laborers worldwide. The Asia-Pacific region has the largest
number of working children (5-14 years), some 127 million or 60
percent of the total.

A 2001 report by the ILO and the International Program on the
Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) said there were around 1.4
million domestic workers in the country, 23 percent of them
children under 15.

Another report from the Office of the State Minister for
Women's Empowerment said after the economic crisis, between three
and six million children were left without parental care and
scrambled to make a living.

Indonesia has ratified ILO Convention No. 182 on the
elimination of the worst forms of child labor, which requires the
country to eradicate 20 of the worst forms of child labor within
a twenty-year period.

In 2001, then president Abdurrahman Wahid issued a
presidential decree on a national action committee tasked with
eradicating the worst forms of child labor.

To help the campaign, the ILO and IPEC have earmarked around
US$4.5 million in aid for the second semester of 2003.

In collaboration with a number of universities in the country,
ILO-IPEC has embarked on a survey to collect data on children
employed in the worst forms of child labor.

Meanwhile, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa
Wea said the government had created the legal basis to curb the
employment of children in harmful situations.

"Law No. 13/2003 stipulates severe punishment for employers of
children," he said, adding that the law demanded up to five years
imprisonment or a fine of Rp 500 million for its violators.

Jacob also said that all provincial manpower agencies had
agreed to set up action committees to start campaigning on the
phasing out of child labor.

"The ministry has also moved to set up a child-labor free
zone, probably the first of its kind in the world. The first
model is to be introduced in Kutai, East Kalimantan and more will
follow," he said.