Protest at plan to net vagrants

JAKARTA (JP): A non-governmental organization has strongly protested the city administration's plan to round up street children and send them to rehabilitation shelters ahead of the People's Consultative Assembly's Special Session next week.

The organization called Forum Peduli Anak Indonesia (Indonesian Children Care Forum) said in a statement signed by its coordinator Erwin Pardede on Friday that it feared operations against street children would cause them suffering as during earlier raids law and order officers used violence against them.

"The raid plan, which is aimed to clean the streets of children due to the special session, next year's general election and other political reasons, is inhumane and could psychologically disturb the children," the statement said.

It said that beside being inhumane, sending the street children to rehabilitation shelters might depress them.

The organization said providing daily meals worth Rp 7,500 (US$1) without supervision was neither wise nor educative and could tempt officers in charge of handling the program to act corruptly.

"Netting the street children without improving their families' lives will only worsen their situation since most of them work on the streets for their families' needs," it said.

The city administration inaugurated 12 shelters for street children on Thursday.

Central Jakarta Mayor Andi Subur Abdullah said after the inauguration ceremony, that he would deploy his officials to net the children at street junctions. (jun)