Street children face exploitation in Surabaya
Street children face exploitation in Surabaya
By Gin Kurniawan
SURABAYA (JP): As night arrives, Kembang Kuning graveyard
comes alive. This is the place where many men satisfy their
sexual drives. In fact, at night, the graveyard becomes a meat
market.
Hundreds of sex workers, including transvestites and some
children, work in this 4-hectare Chinese graveyard, charging
customers between Rp 3,000 and Rp 10,000. Dozens of child
beggars, street singers and cigarette vendors also scramble to
make a living in the graveyard.
On this particular night, several boys were seen sitting in a
dark corner near a tomb. From a distance, a light was seen for
some seconds, then it went dark again. This was repeated several
times. Once in a while the boys laughed. They were playing the
so-called "Matches Sex" game.
The boys surrounded a girl, call her Yeyen, 11, who sat on the
tomb. She was the object in this game. As one of the boys lit a
match, she had to pull up her skirt to allow the boys to look at
her.
Yeyen receives Rp 500 every time the match is lit. That is the
current price, which has increased from Rp 100 before the crisis.
But Yeyen does not get to keep all of the money because she has
to give about half of her earnings to a hoodlum.
What happens to Yeyen is one of many examples of the
exploitation of street children in Surabaya. They are abused by
adults who make money from them. Many of the children are forced
to enter prostitution.
Yeyen, who also has been forced into prostitution, is known as
the Queen of the Matches Sex game in Kembang Kuning graveyard.
The term Matches Sex is not only popular in the graveyard, but
also in other places in Surabaya, including the red-light
districts near the Bungurasih and Joyoboyo bus terminals and the
Wonokromo and Gubeng train stations. Similar exploitation
reportedly also takes place in Yogyakarta and it is possible that
it happens in other big cities as well.
Exploitation of street children in Surabaya has reached an
alarming level and it is likely that there are syndicates behind
the abuse. These syndicates reportedly not only involve hoodlums,
but also employees of the city security and order office.
"They make street children milch cows and treat them like
slaves," Bagong Suyanto, chairman of the Institution for the
Protection of Children in East Java, said.
According to Bagong, street children seem to "live in a
jungle" where those who are strong overpower the weak. Street
children are the weak, therefore they become the targets of those
who are physically strong or those who have power. And those who
have power are hoodlums and employees of the security and order
office.
The street children have to give money to the hoodlums who run
the streets where they struggle to make money.
"If we want to be safe, we have to give them money every day,"
Amir, 17, a vendor at Joyoboyo bus terminal, said.
There are also some employees of the security and order office
who launch raids against street children. It seems, however, that
the raids are only a cover to extort money from the children.
"As long as we give them money, we are free to sell our
goods," Amir said.
Nanang, a street singer who works in Bungurasih terminal, said
that once he was assaulted because he refused to give money to a
hoodlum.
"We have to obey them, otherwise things would become really
bad," Nanang said.
Bagong, who is also a social researcher at Airlangga
University, said street children are an easy target for extortion
because the children themselves make quite good money. Joint
research conducted by Atma Jaya University in Jakarta and the
East Java Institute for the Protection of Children showed that
the children earn an average of between Rp 15,000 and Rp 30,000 a
day.
There are about 5,000 street children in Surabaya, an increase
from about 2,000 children before the economic crisis. Most of
them work as street singers, hawkers and beggars.
"Just imagine how much the hoodlums make if the children have
to give them half of their earnings," Bagong said.