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