Poverty blamed for child labor
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The twin problems of school dropouts and child labor in the country have been blamed on widespread poverty.
The director in charge of monitoring child labor at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, Sudaryanto, said the government could not stop the problem of child labor without first dealing with two other problems: poverty and a lack of education among some parents.
"Despite some progress, the issue of child labor will continue as long as the problems of poverty and poor quality of human resources linger," he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
A recent joint survey by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and a leading market research company, Taylor Nelson Soffres (TNS), found that 19 percent of school-age children in Indonesia could not afford to attend school. This was cited as the main factor behind the high number of child laborers in the country.
The manpower minister has said that the number of child laborers has increased to almost three million this year from 1.56 million in 2003.
Sudaryanto said that according to a survey conducted by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2003, about 37 million members of the country's approximately 100 million-strong workforce were living below the poverty line.
He said that from the members of the workforce between the ages of 18 and 55, almost 70 percent were elementary school dropouts or elementary school graduates, and that only less than 3 percent had graduated from university.
"About 30 percent, or 30.6 million, of the workforce is employed in the formal sector, mostly being paid less than minimum wage. More than 60 million people are employed in the informal sector and have no legal protection or insurance," he said.
He said the open unemployment figure had reached 11 million people, while the disguised unemployment figure, or those working less than 35 hours a week, had reached more than 40 million.
"Given these conditions, the government and other stakeholders should first of all work hard to eliminate poverty and to provide training for unskilled workers to make them creative and productive," he said.
The director general for labor inspection at the ministry, Maruddin Simanihuruk, said the government had established the National Committee for Action Plans for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor, which was chaired by the manpower and transmigration minister.
"The national program for eliminating the worst forms of child labor is underway in 20 provinces and there have been successes in North Sumatra and East Java," he said.
The national committee was set up soon after the issuance of Presidential Decree No. 59/2002, which followed Indonesia's ratification of ILO Convention No. 182 on the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor.
Simanihuruk said child workers had been removed from offshore fish traps along North Sumatra's eastern coast and were now employed at plantations and in local development projects through a voluntary child labor program (regulated by the government with limited working hours).
The children employed under this program are given training aimed at improving their skills. Their parents also receive training and Rp 1.5 million each to help them set up their own small business.
Simanihuruk said the manpower and transmigration ministry was cooperating with regions to eliminate the worst forms of child labor.
He also said that under regional autonomy, a number of regions in Papua, Bali, East Kalimantan, Riau and Aceh had fully implemented a compulsory nine-year education program aimed at eliminating illiteracy and improving the quality of human resources.
He added that the ILO office in Jakarta was also helping to finance an education program for child laborers in West Java and East Kalimantan, with the program to be extended to North Sumatra, East Java and South Sulawesi.