Street children hope to be breadwinners of poor families

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Many children hope to become doctors or pilots when they grow up, but street children have other ideas.

"I want to be a bride," said seven-year-old street child Anti, who was begging in Karet, Central Jakarta.

Another street child, Jaman, said: "I want to be a real street singer when I grow up."

Anti said that she wanted to be a bride because a bride would not have to work on the streets like she did. She said that a groom would shelter his bride.

"Besides, I want to be pretty and smell good like a bride," said Anti.

Anti, who begs on the streets from dawn until dusk, admitted that she rarely bathed because it was too expensive as she had to use a public restroom, which charges Rp 1,000 for bathing. She also said that her mother asked her to be thrifty with the soap and toothpaste.

Nine-year-old Jaman, who was begging at Blok M bus station, considers singing on the street a good job as a person could earn more money even though it took the same amount of effort as begging on the streets.

A "real street singer", in his opinion, is a street singer who uses musical instruments such as guitars or homemade drums.

"They are free to do whatever they want," said Jaman, who dislikes school.

Jaman and his two siblings are made to beg on the streets by their parents. Besides begging, Jaman also has to watch over his five-year-old brother and two-year-old sister. They jumped from one bus to another to get a coin.

"We have to give the money to our parents. We can usually collect Rp 15,000 to Rp 20,000 a day, but they only give us Rp 1,000 or Rp 500 to buy snacks or drinks," said Jaman, who begs from 8 a.m to 8 p.m. every day.

Anti, too, is instructed by her parents to beg on the streets.

"My mom would hit me if I refused to beg on the streets," she said.

On Friday morning she was begging with her younger sister, while their mother watched over them from the roadside.

She sat on the pavement, breast-feeding Anti's baby brother. Several other women were also watching over their begging children.

"They have to beg, otherwise we wouldn't be able to eat. My husband is only a porter. He sometimes brings no money home," said Warti, Anti's mother.

"I myself do not beg because most people tend not to give money to a healthy adult like me."

Anti and her sister usually collect Rp 10,000 to Rp 15,000 a day each.

Warti's family moved with her family here from Indramayu, West Java, three years ago hoping for a better life. They live in a rented room near the street where the children beg.

"My children usually beg from 7 a.m to 12 midnight. I join them at about 9 a.m because I have to clean our house first. It's OK for them to be on streets all day long," said Warti, saying that friends watched over her children for her.

She claimed that her children were safe on the streets.

"They can take a nap in the afternoon for an hour or so. Not in the house, of course, but here on the street," Warti said, pointing to a carton box in which she laid her baby.

She admitted that she sometimes hits her children to force them to work on the streets.

"They must understand that they have to beg for living. At first, Anti refused to beg because she wanted to go to school, but I hit her," Warti said.

"School is not important for us. Their future is not at school."

Stories about street children like Anti and Jaman are nothing new as they have been repeatedly published in newspapers.

The children are exposed to many kinds of abuse, whether it be physical, mental or sexual. They might be abused by adults on the streets or by their own parents.

A study by Atma Jaya University's Community Study and Development Center last year reveals that about 75,000 children below 18 years of age in 12 cities in Indonesia are street children.

The study also shows that many of these children began working on the street before the age of 12, and that only 43 percent still go to school.

The government and several non-governmental organizations have attempted to assist them. However, the number of street children has continued to increase over the past few years.