Street children increase due to jobless parents

JAKARTA (JP): The number of street children in the capital has increased more than fivefold from 12,636 in August last year to 68,688 last month, an official has said.

Head of the public order subdivision of the city's social and political affairs bureau Bahar Laut said on Friday the increase was mainly due to more people losing their jobs during the prolonged crisis.

"From construction and factory workers being laid off to the closing down of small-scale businesses, the crisis has forced the jobless to push their children onto the streets to beg," Bahar told The Jakarta Post.

"People are saying that the economy is slowly recovering ... you see these children and you know, economic recovery is still a far-off dream".

Bahar added that the continuing increase in child buskers, windshield cleaners and unofficial parking attendants on the streets would soon increase the number of crime "black spots" in the capital.

"Today there are nearly 70 spots in the capital vulnerable to street robberies and extortion ... as long as poverty continues, this figure will keep increasing," he said.

Meanwhile, Toha Reno, a senior executive at the city public order office, said he felt the increase was due to demonstrations, considered a "great, money-making opportunity" in Jakarta.

"Since the past year, demonstrations, protests, even full- scale riots and looting have been rampant like never before," Toha said.

"If you really believe that only strong beliefs motivate the very poor to university students to protest, then you are not orang Jakarta (a Jakartan)."

Toha said it was common knowledge that each time a person protested here, he or she normally received between Rp 20,000 to Rp 50,000.

"If that's not enough to bring all the jobless villagers and their children into the capital, I don't know what else is."

Under City Ordinance No. 1/1970, the capital is a closed city to any migrant considered a potential burden to the city, including jobless people.

Gubernatorial Decree No. 1540/1996 states that every visitor must possess travel documents and report to heads of community neighborhoods in which he or she resides.

Of the 68,688 children, nearly 41,000 children have been treated at private and city-run social centers.

"The rest are still hanging around the city streets. We have tried several times to send them back to their hometowns ... but it's no use," Bahar said.

"They probably want their freedom, which is what they get on the streets.".(ylt)