New home, new hope for Jakarta's street kids

New home, new hope for Jakarta's street kids

By Vilomena Narat

JAKARTA: "I have been (living) on the streets for eight years
(1992-2000)," says Yanto, who has just finished ngamen (singing)
in a city bus to make some money.

"Sometimes I can pocket Rp 15,000 (US$1.6) a day from the
proceeds of my ngamen, but sometimes only Rp 2,000 a day," says
the 13-year-old boy. "I spend the money on meals and give the
rest to my mother Iem, and my two younger brothers Danni and
Kibul.

"I was born in Jakarta. My mother came from Solo (Surakarta),
Central Java, and my father (Maryanto) from Surabaya in East
Java. Every day I go home at 4 p.m., to my mother's house who
lives in Pramuka, East Jakarta, with my brothers," continues
Yanto.

"After my father died -- I don't remember how long ago -- I
was forced to drop out of school," recounts the boy. "I only
reached third grade of primary school. How can I continue my
education? My mother is only a 'housewife' who has to support me
and my two brothers."

Yanto's desire to earn a livelihood eventually led the way for
him to survive and to rekindle his hope to continue his
schooling.

Yanto's story is representative of the stories of street
children, who number 1.7 million in all the 30 provinces of
Indonesia, according to data collected by the National Commission
for Child Protection.

Teguh, 21, was formerly a street child who earned money by
selling cigarettes, shining shoes, ngamen, cleaning car
windshields in the business district of Jakarta, along Jl.
Sudirman, Jl. Gatot Subroto, Jl. Thamrin, and Jl. Rasuna Said.

He lived on the streets for five years. Teguh ran away from
his home in Kebumen, Central Java, after he was scolded by his
parents for stealing money and selling a neighbor's bicycle which
he had stolen.

He left Kebumen for Jakarta by train, and arrived at Gambir
Railway Station in Central Jakarta.

There began his life as a street child, as a result of which,
Teguh says, he has had enough of violence. For instance, once
when he finished ngamen, his money was taken away forcefully by
hoodlums. If he did not give it, he was punched, beaten, slapped.

While earning odd money as a joki or a drivers' companion to
allow cars to evade rules that allowed only vehicles with three
people to pass some streets, he was arrested by security
personnel and confined in a prison for two days and two nights.

Then, he was dumped on the Cikampek toll road, which is two
hours' travel from Jakarta in the direction of West Java. But
Teguh returned to Jakarta anyway, hitching a ride on a city bus.

The seventh child among 10 brothers and sisters, Teguh now
aspires to become a mechanical engineer. The road to his
aspirations is open, because he is now in the second grade of a
school for mechanical technology (STM).

He left the streets and began going to school after he joined
the Yayasan Griya Asih, which means "a home that can provide love
to children", on April 7, 1988.

Today, Teguh says the temptation to return to the streets is
always there, but he tries to fight it. "I don't want to go back
to the streets again. I want to be good, so that I can achieve my
aspirations."

The Griya Asih foundation is led by Tuti Murniati, a 55-year-
old woman who has been a social worker since she was 18 years
old.

In addition to studying and going to school, youngsters are
trained in various skills -- making handicrafts, making chicken
noodles, ice candy. They are also sent to courses to learn
English or sewing, and to learn to work as beauty parlor
assistants, mechanics and drivers.

Like Teguh, 17-year-old Suryadi also used to be a street
child. Now in the first grade of STM, he joined Yayasan Griya
Asih in July 1999.

"In one year on the streets, I felt and saw for myself the
violence of the streets. I was at one time arrested by security
and order personnel at night because of sleeping in the streets.
I was kicked and placed in a cell in Cipayung (West Jakarta). But
I managed to escape through the roof tiles (of the house),
together with five of other arrested friends," Suryadi relates.

And to fill our stomachs we had to collect the leftovers of
other people's meals, Suryadi complained, speaking of life on the
streets.

In contrast to that kind of life, he says of his days at
Yayasan Griya Asih: "I feel happy here. In addition to meeting
the needs for food and housing, I also get my need for affection
met. In short, we live here decently like a family, caring for
each other and loving each other."

"The efforts to realize the rights of children and the
empowerment of street children are the main objectives in why I
established this foundation," disclosed Tuti.

Tuti's friends helped her set up the foundation. The first 40
street children were taken there by Andre, her eldest child, in
February 1996.

There are 74 children accommodated in this foundation: 20
girls and 54 boys with separate rooms.

Many street children do not go to school or have been forced
to drop out because their main concern was to survive, especially
since Indonesia was hit by the economic crisis in 1997. As a
result, they became even more vulnerable to the risks of sexual
misconduct and exploitation, brutality and threats from the
security apparatus and hoodlums, pollution and disease.

In this environment, "many of them have the potential to
commit criminal acts", commented Aris Merdeka Sirait, executive
director of the National Commission for the Protection of
Children.

Weak protection

Indonesia was the first country to ratify the Convention on
the Rights of the Child through Presidential Decree No.36/90 on
Aug. 25, 1990. There are also various legal acts in health,
education, social welfare aimed at strengthening Indonesian law
in giving effective protection to children.

But carelessness and neglect in the implementation of laws
were admitted in February by then state minister of human rights
Hasballah Saad at the opening of a national workshop/seminar on
the role of media and the community in the prevention of child
abuse.

On a different occasion, Hasballah promised to provide
volunteers who would teach and give training to street children
to prepare them for their future.

"Attention must be given to the education of street children
so that they can grow up and develop," commented a social worker
in Jakarta.

The population of street children in Indonesia consists mostly
of boys rather than girls. This composition is considered good
because girls are more likely to be at risk of mistreatment and
violence, unwanted pregnancies and diseases, said Soetarso, a
local consultant on street children from the Asian Development
Bank.

Anne-Marie Fonseka, a child protection officer with United
Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), says that this situation is
brought about by a culture in which girls are more protected and
have to stay in safe environments, and it is not good when they
are present and work in the streets.

The presence of children on the streets is caused by the weak
economic position or the poverty of their parents, the lack of
communication, limited living space and the unavailability of a
place to play. Thus, some choose to live on the streets rather
than at home, commented Fonseka.

In Indonesia, street children are called "naughty children" or
"troublemakers", dropouts, children without homes and vagrants,
and other negative epithets. The community also knows them as the
cast-off "community", rejects and disparages them, and
discriminates against them.

Street children feel this discrimination in obtaining
education and health service facilities.

As an example, they are not given priority in getting "health
cards" meant by the health ministry to be given to them and poor
families, so they can have access to public health services.

In reality, obtaining these cards is very difficult, because
the government does not have a large stock and people who want to
get them have pay to get a letter confirming that they are poor.
"So who is eager to get these cards?" asked Fonseka.

"This is the problem. The government has a program to provide
health cards to street children, but they cannot be used in every
community health center. This is only political propaganda," Aris
commented.

Fonseka said that in addition to health cards, the government
also established a "transit house" program for street children.
But this was not successful, because the children tend to return
to the streets and play with their friends.

These problems show that a new more realistic concept is
needed, "a more flexible approach which combines the transit home
approach and the street-based approach, to do more for the street
children", Fonseka said.

The National Commission for the Protection of Children has
urged the government to make a new department, but there has as
yet been no answer from the Jakarta government. So far, there is
no special department for the protection of children.

"There is now the National Social Welfare Agency (BKSN) but it
does not provide a solution for solving the social problem of
street children because BKSN is only administrative and not
operational. There is no real action by the government," said
Aris.

-- Inter Press Service