Lack of public areas makes people stressed

Lack of public areas makes people stressed

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Lack of public recreation areas in the city causes many
people, including children, to suffer from stress as they do not
have enough places to ease the high tension resulting from the
tough daily grind.

"People need open public spaces to ease the high tension
caused by their tough routine," Jahja Hanafie an urban planning
expert of the Indonesian Association of Planners (IAP) told the
media on Thursday.

Jahja said the city's inconsistency in upholding property
regulations had resulted in the decrease of public spaces
significantly.

He cited the example of lenient sanctions given by the city
administration against developers who violated the public
facilities regulation, which requires them to provide up to 30
percent of their land area for social and public facilities.

He also deplored the city administration's plan to fence in
the National Monument (Monas) park.

Jahja was speaking at a press conference to introduce the
organization's working agenda for the next Jakarta governor.
Other IAP's experts present included Holiq Raus, Abdul Alim
Salam, Yayat Supriatna, and Wicaksono Sarosa.

Holiq said that the inadequate public spaces also encouraged
children to play on the streets, in markets and other
inappropriate places which tended to make unruly with some ending
up as street children.

"This especially happens to poor families as they have only
small houses and no money to go to other places," he said.

He noted that the availability of public places like parks,
playgrounds and football fields were very important for children
to develop their sportsmanship.

Unfortunately, he added, the development of the city has
failed to provide enough public places as the city administration
has only focused on physical development.

Data about the number of street children in the capital is
sketchy, but data from the city administration shows that the
figure is currently only around 9,000. Data from the Indonesian
Children's Welfare Foundation (YKAI), however, places the figure
up to 40,000.

Ib. Karyanto, chairman of Sanggar Anak Indonesia, a non-
governmental organization which cares for street children, said
the number of street children has continued to increase due to
the economic difficulties of their families.

"For poor people, children can be an asset. Therefore there
are many parents who ask them to work. Actually, there is no need
to conduct a survey to confirm that the number of street children
is increasing. We can clearly see more and more children singing
on public buses, at traffic lights and other public places," he
added.

Yayat Supriatna added that as many children spend a lot of
their time on the streets and in the markets they lean toward
violence.

He said that the rampant brawls among high school students in
the city could be cited as an indication.

"Student brawls occur in all cities, but the number in Jakarta
is extraordinarily high compared to other cities. Therefore
whoever is elected governor in the next election should pay
serious attention to the issue," Yayat said.