Many children's problems remain unresolved

This special page is in observance of National Children's Day, which is commemorated on July 23 each year. This page looks at only a small number of the problems facing the country's children.

Erita Narhetali, Contributor, Jakarta

Every child in this world has the right to grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding. But in Indonesia, many children still live in misery.

The incidence of street children, child labor, child trafficking and child prostitution continues to increase, while child malnutrition often goes unnoticed.

Issues related to children's rights in Indonesia have received a great deal of attention from people either at home or overseas, following the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the enactment of the law on child protection (No. 23/2002).

Unfortunately, despite the ratification of the CRC and the issuance of the law, most children's problems in the country remain unresolved. Most of the government's programs are still focused on how to design effective regulations.

As a result, the government is paying little attention to coping with the core problem, such as the lack of a workable program that could help prepare children to enter the workforce.

Let's look at the handling of street children as an example. Housing them in a temporary shelter or in foster care is one of the strategies adopted by the government or non-governmental organizations to deal with street children and neglected children.

However, this approach often fails to work as expected. Most of the children look at foster care just like a "hotel" -- a place to be visited when there is a need. They go to foster care only to benefit from the facilities it provides such as food and other basic needs.

Ideally, such temporary shelters should not only provide basic needs but also full-time social workers who function not just as counselors but also as substitute parents.

Unfortunately, most child foster cares in Indonesia are built based on charity programs, while the social worker is perceived only as part-time or voluntarily jobs.

Professionalism in handling foster care has become a prerequisite. The psychological condition of most street children is nearly impossible to be dealt with simply through charity programs.

The city violence that has become part of their lives has taught them a lot about how to survive. However, this situation affects their personalities. It is, therefore, not easy for them to return to the norms of family life.

With the lack of thoughtful programs and professional social workers, the existence of foster care or shelters does nothing for the children's future. The children just tend to stay longer to benefit from the free meals and other basic needs they receive.

In many shelters or foster care arrangements in most Asian countries including Indonesia, street children have been given basic skills in addition to catering for their basic needs, but most of their programs still fail to answer the fundamental question: "What will the children do after they complete the program?"

Mongolia and Uzbekistan may be viewed as good examples in this instance. In these two countries, the programs relating to street children not only include development of the children but also improving the quality of the people involved.

Social workers in these two countries, for example, do not only have sufficient knowledge to do their jobs but also earn a good salary.

I think the Indonesian government should learn from the two countries if it really wants to solve the problem.

Another issue that deserves attention is the violation of children's rights resulting from evictions.

A wave of evictions in Jakarta recently affected no less than 2,000 children. The impact on the children was great, not only financially but also mentally.

A group of students from the School of Psychology at the University of Indonesia, who opened a "Sekolah Perahu" (boat school) for evicted children in Kali Adem, North Jakarta, found most of the children who witnessed the destruction of their houses and neighborhoods were suffering from "forklift trauma".

Psychological trauma, especially when it takes place during childhood, should not be neglected. The misery and anger resulting from such violence will remain intact in the children's minds for the rest of their lives. In many cases, such experiences will have serious implications on their future mental health.

Can you imagine what will happen to our future generations if more and more children are suffering from psychological disorders.

There are at least three things that can be done to help resolve children's problems.

First, it is time for the government to introduce an integrated program to cope with the growing number of children's problems, either due to direct causes, which generally result from the ineffectiveness of the government's policy such as armed conflict and city violence, or due to indirect causes such as poverty, domestic violence, drug abuse or natural disaster.

Logically, preventing violations of children's rights from direct causes would be more feasible if the government had a strong commitment to law enforcement.

The current national policy has proved to be ineffective. The solving of children's problems is often regarded only as charity and merely a social issue.

Second, the government needs to cooperate more closely with related educational institutions, such as through the establishment of community-based programs. Such cooperation is important, not only in formulating more workable programs but also in improving the professionalism of the social workers.

At present, social workers mostly work as volunteers, and receive no salary. Under these conditions, it is understandable if street children programs do not run as we would normally expect.

Last, but not least, law enforcement is vital to ensure that all of these programs are properly implemented.

The writer is head of research and development at the Institute for People's Study and Advocacy, Jakarta.