Officials get tough on children jockeys

JAKARTA (JP): The streets became emotional on Tuesday as local government officials took into custody children jockeys, some of whom burst into tears as they were led away by officials.

The children are picked up as passengers by private vehicles to allow the vehicles to enter restricted three-in-one zones. These restricted zones are areas of the city which only cars with three passengers are allowed to enter between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m.

The children taken into custody on Tuesday were brought to a state-run home in Kedoya, West Jakarta.

One of the children interviewed by The Jakarta Post, Roospita, 12, a junior high school student, said she was frightened and wished she could go home to her mother.

She said she became a jockey because her mother could no longer afford to send her to school.

Another child, Ningsih, 15, with tears rolling down her cheeks, said her parents told her that if she wanted to stay in school she would have to work.

"This was my second week as a jockey," she said.

The roundup of the children began at 7 a.m. in several locations across the city. Government officials and police officers patrolled the streets where jockeys normally offered their services.

Officers took 46 children into custody during the raid.

Some 20 of the children who were not students and were under 20 years of age were sent to the Muslim-based foundation Alwasilla. The rest of the children were sent to a state-run home or released to their parents.

The local government has decided to raid the homeless, street children and jockeys in an effort to combat the rising crime rate in the capital.

"Besides, children are not supposed to be on the streets," the head of the state-run home, Nandi Tjaspadi, said.

Most of the children work as jockeys to finance their studies, while some are forced to work to help support their families.

The mother of one of the children caught in the raid told the Post her daughter had to work because she was too old to support the family. (04/03)