Indonesia urged to ratify ILO convention on child labor

Indonesia urged to ratify ILO convention on child labor

JAKARTA (JP): The Second National Conference on Child Labor in
Indonesia ended yesterday with a call to ratify the International
Labor Organization (ILO) Convention no. 138 as a presidential
decree, Antara reported.

Without the ratification of the document, which determines the
minimum working age for children, differences as to how the
problem of child labor should be solved would remain, the
conference pointed out.

The conference, held at Wisma Kinasih, Bogor, West Java,
called for better enforcement of laws designed to protect child
workers. It also called for the swift handling of cases of abuse
such as abduction, sexual abuse and child prostitution.

The participants in the event additionally called for greater
funds from the government and foreign donor countries for the
campaign against child exploitation.

The conference's chief organizer, Arum R. Kusumanegara, said
the meeting of experts and activists has identified a number of
problems, such as the lack of manpower supervision officials to
prevent child labor exploitation.

Pandji Putranto, the ILO's national program coordinator for
the International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor, said
recently that none of the programs currently in existence for
children directly focus on child labor.

The government only provides a small amount of funds for child
labor programs out of the US$ 250,000 allocated by the Ministry
of Social Services for street children, he said.

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

The three-day conference was attended by non-governmental
organizations, government officials and representatives from
other institutions.

The event was closed by Suwarto, Director-General for
Industrial Relations and Labor Standards at the Ministry of
Manpower. (31)