Govt to free children from forced labor

Govt to free children from forced labor

JAKARTA (JP): The government will make sure that about 5,000 children are released from forced labor on off-shore jermal (fishing structures) in North Sumatra so they can return home and to school, an official says.

Yaumil Agoes Achir, assistant to coordinating minister for people's welfare, told a media conference following a limited Cabinet meeting here on Thursday that the physical and psychological conditions of the severely underpaid child laborers, mostly between the ages of seven and 14, were cause for concern.

The coordinating minister, Haryono Suyono, and his colleagues including Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Feisal Tanjung, State Minister of Food A.M. Saefuddin, Minister of Social Services Justika Baharsjah and Minister of Health F.A. Moeloek discussed the issue at length in their meeting. However, there were no details as to how the government would start its campaign to have the child workers released.

The children working on jermal (fishing structures) are often subject to severe hard labor, are malnourished and prone to physical and sexual abuse.

Yaumil was quoted by Antara as saying that the ministries of manpower, education and culture, and social services, would launch a program to help them leave the fishing structures, and return to work. Their parents, who in many cases hand over their children to bondage, would receive financial assistance to start their own businesses, she said.

The government will also ratify the International Labor Organization's (ILO) convention No. 138 on age limitation for child laborers. According to the convention, parents of child workers under the age of 15 or companies that hire them would face legal sanctions.

The ministerial meeting also discussed efforts to accelerate programs to improve the nutritional status of 10 million under- fives and 10 million pregnant women as a way to fight maternal and infant mortality rates during the economic crisis.

In October last year, President B.J. Habibie pledged to lure children off the streets and back into school. He instructed related ministries to make a list of street children in the country, look for appropriate boarding houses to accommodate them and plan a budget for the program.

In Jakarta alone, the number of street children increased late last year by 15 percent, from 2,378 in 1997 to 3,963. However, it is believed that the real number of children who earn a living on the streets is much higher.

So far, no reports are available from the ministries on how the program to take children off the streets has fared. (swe)