Poverty, abuse send kids to the streets _______________________________________________________________

They are everywhere, part of the city, part of us. Many come from families too poor to take care of them. Many are running away from abusive parents who exploit their youth to earn a living by begging. Some are simply lazy. Whatever their reasons are, they have ended up on the street and formed a society of their own - street children. The public is either too busy fighting to survive to help the children, or too preoccupied in their quest for wealth to notice. The state, which is supposed to protect them, sends them to homes for delinquent children when they become a problem.

The Jakarta Post reporters Ati Nurbaiti, Rita A. Widiadana and Samsudin Berlian have prepared two stories on street children in Jakarta. Another story is written by Dini Sari Djalal who interviewed street children and the NGO which helps them in Bandung. The other stories appear on page 2. ______________________________________________________________________

JAKARTA (JP): A home is where your heart is, where your loved ones are always there to take care of you, comfort you in times of sadness and to share your joys.

Often, however, a home means the opposite - abuse, both physical and mental, neglect, a place to be avoided.

"I ran away from home because I didn't want to live with a vicious stepfather," says Ujang (not his real name).

Ujang left his home in Bogor, West Java, to protest his mother's second marriage. That was two years ago, and now, at the age of 12, he is more than familiar with sex, drugs and violence.

Ujang had his first taste of drugs and alcohol when his friends introduced him to those "things" two years ago when he joined the gang.

"We need something to keep our shivering bodies warm during the cold nights. Every night we usually play dominoes and drink Anggur Orang Tua (a brand of local rice wine). One of my friends also suggested that I take BK pills (yellow sedative pills) to get high," he explains.

Ujang, who has become a BK pill addict, lives with his peers in a vacant kiosk at the Kramat Jati Market and earns money selling newspapers and shining shoes.

Harsh reality has shaped Ujang into a tough but carefree urchin. He does not seem bothered by the way life treats him. He even appears to have forgotten how he used to be manipulated by the area's prostitutes.

"I had just arrived here and one of the perek (Indonesian slang for prostitute) called me and then started to kiss me," he recalls.

In return for his young body, Ujang got between Rp 1,000 and Rp 2,000.

The sexual abuse went on until members of the Nanda Dian Nusantara Foundation, a non-governmental organization which focuses on educating street children, explained to him and the other kids in the market the danger of unprotected sex.

Loose

Ujang is one of the growing number of children who have made the street their home and their livelihood.

It is a loose community, stabilized by its own, accepted laws. The hierarchy follows the power of age and, or, wit. Younger kids are often the victims of older, stronger thugs who extort their hard earn money or manipulate their bodies.

They have a considerably wide range of income sources. Budi, 14, for example, helps a parking attendant outside the gate of the Hard Rock Cafe and MacDonald's restaurant on Jl. Thamrin, Central Jakarta. He can be found there every night until the club closes down, usually at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m., and earns between Rp 3,000 and Rp 5,000 each night.

To eat, they pick up leftovers they call oyen, from restaurants' or from the food stalls' customers.

Isn't the oyen revolting?

"No, it's food, rice," says Dadang, 10.

He has a point. They're just looking for food everyone else eats.

Victims

It will be naive and simplistic to try to make a conclusion of the problems of street children, what causes it, from the above illustrations. However, experts believe that poverty is one of the major factors.

The problems of street children, like those of other destitute children, are inseparable from the condition of their parents or families, according to a country report prepared for the regional seminar on the plight of street children in South East Asia in Thailand in June.

Agricultural stagnation and rural poverty have usually resulted in mass migration to the city, triggering various social problems, including the problem of street children, the report argues.

"Rural families aren't prepared to live in urban centers where expertise and skill are required to make a decent living. This, coupled with a different value system, and leads directly to the problem of street children," according to the report.

It also finds that street children are from poor families in urban slums, but stresses that not all poor families produce street children.

The street children who come from these disadvantaged families tend to follow their parents' course in life. They are not prepared to live in big cities and find themselves unable to enter the free competition world of a metropolitan area such as Jakarta, the report continues.

Children and family related problems are so closely linked that the children's problems cannot be solved as long as the family's problems are not fully overcome, it says.

Therefore, appropriate solutions should be carried out to improve the conditions of the families, the report suggests.

"Children are often the victims of jobless parents, strained family relations and neglect," explained Arum Kusuma Negara, executive manager of Rescue Indonesia, a joint project between the Yayasan Kesejahteraan Anak Indonesia (YKAI) and the United States for International Development (USAID).

"Marriages are frequently broken up by the strain of poverty. Hurt, resentful, and often abused, many children choose to leave their parents and start living in the streets," said Arum.

The problem is, people tend to see street children as a troublesome element of society.

"These people do not understand that they are victims of inequality in society, casualties and a deviation from normal life," she said.

However, while many end up on the street due to poverty or broken family, or a combination of both, quite a lot are lured into making the street their home and place to earn money by street freedom.

Take Budi, for example, who claims to be 17 but looks around 12 years old. He earns money be helping parking attendants at the Rawabening Market in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, or hailing taxis for shoppers. In rainy days he rents out umbrellas, a Citizen quartz watch on his wrist.

The day he talked to The Jakarta Post he woke up at 8 a.m., bought breakfast, played around, watched the TV, and slept into evening.

Why the idleness?

"Just lazy," is his honest answer.