Junkyard boys: Portrait of a `playground'

Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Late one evening, two boys -- both about 12 years old -- ran after a passing truck and quickly climbed aboard the moving, four-meter-high vehicle, loaded with tons of rusty steel and heading toward a junkyard at the Pulo Gadung Industrial Estate, East Jakarta.

They rummaged in the big pile of junk that lay heaped in the truck. Seconds later, one of them pushed a two-meter-long, sharp- edged piece of metal, weighing about a hundred kilograms, overboard.

His partner followed suit and both jumped off the still-moving truck to gather their "catch" of the day, which had been left about one hundred meters behind.

Although their action filled passing motorists with horror, the boys seemed totally unconcerned about their surroundings. A motorbike driver yelled and cursed them because one of the metal pieces almost hit him.

The boys were not alone. About 30 others -- mostly teenagers -- were about to climb other trucks delivering rusty scrap metal from across the city to be recycled at the junkyard and recycling plant, PT The Master Steel Manufacturing, Jl. Raya Bekasi km 21, Pulo Gadung, East Jakarta.

From the road, passersby can easily see the mountain of steel -- a grim pile of rusty junk about 15 meters high.

Iwan, 13, one of the junkyard boys, told The Jakarta Post that he had performed similar acrobatic stunts almost every day since the age of nine.

A student of SLTPN 170 junior high school, Pegangsaan Dua, North Jakarta, he said that he and his friends understood the dangers inherent in their job -- even the risk of a fatal accident.

He said that a couple of years back, a 20-year-old boy slipped while climbing onto a truck, which crushed him to death. But the accident did not discourage Iwan and his friends, who said the accident had occurred because the boy was not careful enough and had climbed onto the truck on the wrong side.

Recently, a friend about his age also slipped and hit his head against the asphalt. However, the boy survived, but was left with a big scar on his face.

Another risk that the boys face is the possibility of being cut by the sharp, rusty junk, which they consider just a minor risk that has to be accepted.

"If we cut or injure ourselves, the most important thing is to avoid getting an infection. We must clean and cover the wound, then get back to business," he said, ignoring the possibility of contracting tetanus from the rusty steel pieces.

Iwan and his friends must at times face dirty competition from their seniors -- young men aged 20 to 30 -- who occasionally steal the metal that the boys have gathered.

Sometimes, it becomes physical. "Once, when I was in a truck, a senior boy hit me on the head with a shovel, just because he wanted a piece of junk that I had claimed earlier," he said.

Ravi, 13, said that it was like a game for him and his young colleagues, but apparently money was the main motivation for them. In a month, they could earn up to Rp 600,000 (approximately US$73.62), or an average of Rp 20,000 per day.

The boys usually sell their catch to scrap metal dealers, who can easily be found in the vicinity, and who value the boys' stolen junk at up to Rp 800 per kilogram (kg), and aluminum scrap at up to Rp 40,000 per kg.

Both Ravi and Iwan give their earnings to their parents, who use the money mostly to cover their school expenses.

According to Iwan, in recent years many of the junkyard boys have spent their earnings on drugs. "My eldest brother is now a drug addict. Dealers came to him and persistently offered him drugs," said Iwan, the third of seven siblings.

"We used to look for junk together. Now, he is a different person. He likes to beat everyone in my family and neighborhood and seems to have a constant hangover," said Iwan, whose father works at a canning factory in Bekasi.

Iwan said that he hated the drug dealers and vowed that he would never fall into their trap. In order to do so, he said, he had to stay at school because many of the victims were school dropouts or underachievers. However, both Ravi and Iwan had no idea of what they would do after they had finished school.

Meanwhile, their senior, Luluk, 17, a first-year student at an STM (technical high school) in Pulo Gadung, who has been a junkyard boy since 1995, said that their lives were hard, but that they had no choice.

"I now aim to finish high school and hope that I will get a job in a factory someday," said the boy, who studies high-voltage electricity at school.