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)