Shelters for the poor, destitute not effective, say officials
Shelters for the poor, destitute not effective, say officials
JAKARTA (JP): Article 34 of the 1945 Constitution stipulates,
"The poor, and destitute children shall be cared for by the
State."
The question is, in reality, what institution holds the
responsibility and how should it be carried out?
"Our failure is that these responsibilities have never been
carried out properly," education expert Arief Rahman told a
discussion here on Wednesday.
As a result, he said, there have never been clear programs on
how to take care of poor people and destitute children.
"The same thing occurs when dealing with street children.
There are shelters and programs. But they are hardly effective,"
Arief said.
Arief mentioned that shelters for street children are spread
all over the capital.
Data provided by the city's Social Handicap Rehabilitation
Office shows that there are 96 shelters located in the city,
which accommodate 9,410 street children.
The city administration runs 70 of them, while the rest are
funded and managed by foreign institutions.
According to head of the city Social Handicap Rehabilitation
Office Waluyo, the shelters provide food, a place to stay,
education and training.
However, many criticize such shelters for only providing food
and a place to stay.
Anthropologist Atashendartini Habsjah from Atmajaya University
said that she even doubted there were as many as 96 shelters in
the city.
"Most of the shelters are a nonsense. We found that many of
them were without a supervisor or any programs at all," she
asserted.
According to Arief, shelters are only for temporary relief and
are not effective in the long term.
"We have to create a system to take care of these poor
children," he said.
The important thing is, he added, that street children hate
routine.
"So, the program should not try to enforce routine. First,
just give them basic education and lessons about hygiene," Arief
said.
Atashendartini said that there should be an institution to
protect children.
"Every street child must be accommodated. Not like at present,
where they are arrested on the streets, placed in shelters and
then categorized. But in the end, they keep going back to the
streets," she said.
Meanwhile, Ministry of National Education Director General of
Elementary and Secondary Education Indra Djati Sidi
said that the problem in providing education for street children
is not about money.
"Funds have always been provided, but the mechanisms to
channel them and for target identification are still a problem,"
he said.
His office, he said, is proposing a grant for non-governmental
organizations that will then carry out the program.
There are an estimated 50,000 individuals in the capital who
are categorized as street children, based on research by Atmajaya
in 1999.
They are all below 16 years of age, and earn money as candy
sellers, street singers, car cleaners, shoe shiners and
beggars.(hdn)