Religious groups told to fight against child labor

Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The International Labor Organization (ILO) has asked local religious organizations to help it free an estimated eight million Indonesian children from the shackles of child labor.

The participation of religious organizations is crucial to help the country eradicate child labor, said Pandji Putranto, the national program manager for ILO's International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC).

"We may take them (religious organizations) for granted, but they are indeed on the front lines here," Pandji said on Thursday after the close of a two-day workshop on how to eliminate child labor in Indonesia.

About 60 participants from six religious organizations took part in the workshop, discussing the need and ways to eliminate child labor in the country, according to an ILO statement.

The participants came from Nadhlatul UIama, Muhammadiyah, the Bishops Council of Indonesia (KWI), the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI), the Council of Buddhist Communities (Walubi) and Pasarisada Hindu Dharma.

Pandji said religious organizations had far-reaching networks and their messages were accepted by the public.

"They are strong advocators and an effective pressure group to force the government to act on child labor," he said.

Pandji said the participants responded positively to ILO's call for a joint effort to combat child labor.

He said their organizations could eventually become part of Indonesia's national action program to fight child labor.

According to the government, poverty is the main barrier to efforts to eliminate child labor in the country.

The 1997 economic crisis pushed many families below the poverty line. The number of poor people in Indonesia now reaches about 40 million people, or about 20 percent of the country's 215 million population.

According to ILO's estimates in 2000, some eight million children between the ages of seven and 15 were forced into child labor, mostly to support their families.

About 70 percent of these children worked in the agriculture sector, including on plantations and farms, and for forestry companies. He added that most of the children were employed by their own families.

Pandji said Indonesia's children were forced to take part in nearly all of the worst forms of child labor.

A recent ILO report said that 246 million children between the ages of five and 17 were involved in child labor worldwide.

Among them, 8.4 million had fallen victim to what the organization called the worst forms of child labor. This includes debt bondage, human trafficking, armed conflicts, prostitution, pornography and other illicit activities.