Politicians to blame for children's poor lot

Following last week's national conference on children, The Jakarta Post spoke with Yaumil Agoes Achir, a professor of psychology at the University of Indonesia and deputy secretary for people's welfare to Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Question: You raised concern about the situation of our country's children during the recent national conference on children. Why?

Answer: As of today, 6.8 million children between the ages of 7 and 15 are out of school. The number of malnourished children has increased from 8 million (before the economic crisis) to 20 million, while the infant mortality rate doubled from 55 to 100 out of 1,000 live births.

The official number of child workers in 1998 was 1.8 million, but it doubled after the crisis. The number of street children, too, doubled because of the crisis. In 1998, some 6 million children were classified as neglected children; this number also doubled...

We have 2 million children between the ages of 10 and 14 with disabilities; only 71,000 of them are taken care of in various centers. The rest are left to fend for themselves.

The Indonesian Children's Welfare Foundation recorded 406 cases of child abuse in 1998, but estimated that up to 70,000 children are sexually assaulted every year.

As many as 150,000 children become prostitutes every year. Further, the number of children in refugee centers because of political conflicts has also increased rapidly, as has the number of child soldiers in Aceh and Maluku.

Q: It is not a pretty picture, but why are we in this situation?

A: One reason is that we are still a very bureaucratic society, one which is not "pro-children". In many cases, children issues are often taken lightly and considered to be "apolitical", so they are only discussed at random. Our politicians do not include children in their agenda, because children don't vote and are "nonmarketable".

Let's look at the state budget for human resources development, which includes education and health. Only 3.8 percent of the whole budget is allocated for education and 8 percent for health development.

This raises the question, how strong is our commitment to developing our children and human resources? It is clear that our government is now giving emphasis to economic (issues) and industry rather than human resource development.

But look at Russia, China, which allocate (at least) 25 percent of their budgets for education, while Malaysia and Singapore provide over 10 percent of their budgets for the same purpose. Taiwan is a good example as it allocates 15 percent of its state budget for education. Currently, 31.7 percent of its population has a tertiary education.

Q: Have we got the tools in place to protect the children?

A: The government has actually enacted many pieces of legislation, including the 1990 presidential decree ratifying the Convention of the Rights of the Child. This is the starting point for our campaign to develop the quality of our children, as it binds us to implement agreements contained in the document.

Indonesia has declared 1986 to 1996 and 1996 to 2006 as the decades of the children. A 1997 presidential decree was also issued to coordinate campaigns to improve children's welfare, while laws have also been passed in 1997, 1999 and 2000 on child courts, child workers and the elimination of child exploitation.

In 1998, the government included children's rights in the national action plan for the promotion of human rights. In fact, the 1999 law on human rights also places the rights of the child as an integral part of human rights; out of its 106 chapters, 15 are on children's rights.

In addition, we are now waiting for the House of Representatives to finish its deliberations on a bill on the protection of children.

But we can't deny that the rights of many Indonesian children have yet to be protected. We have to admit the government's programs have yet to focus on children's health, education and civil rights.

Q: So where have we gone wrong?

A: The government's goal is for Indonesia to have generations of children who are independent, spiritually and physically well ... but experience shows the campaigns we have waged so far -- be it the compulsory education program, the fight against malnutrition, the fight against gender bias -- are still confined to (narrow) sectors.

This is why many of the efforts have yet to benefit our children. This is especially true if we have still failed to learn why some children need special protection in the first place.

In 1989, the administration established a permanent task force to coordinate children welfare campaigns at the national level. But because of the absence of the (government's) political will, that particular agency remains ineffective.

Q: President Abdurrahman Wahid dissolved a number of institutions which in the past were in charge of children's welfare. So who is coordinating all of the campaigns focusing on children?

A: It would be ideal if the government established a national council for this purpose.

The agency should serve as the leader in the development of children, in charge of issues such as the promotion of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, reporting progress or a lack of it and ensuring the allocation of an adequate budget. With such a council, we could hope there wouldn't be any overlap in children's programs. (Santi W.E. Soekanto)