Unrelenting economic crisis forces children onto the streets
By Jupriadi
JAKARTA (JP): Anto wiped sweat from his face and bravely whisked around the slow-moving cars caught in heavy traffic in the Blok M commercial district in South Jakarta.
"Prabowo has been fired... Prabowo has been fired!" the 12- year-old paperboy calls out, brandishing newspapers with eye- catching headlines that announce the dismissal of Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subiyanto for his alleged role in the recent abductions of political activists.
Anto, who has hawked newspapers on the streets for six months, retreated to the sidewalk when the traffic momentarily eased.
When asked if he attended school, he paused and said, "I quit school in August last year because my parents could not afford to pay my fees due to the devastating crisis." And he jumped back on to the street to hawk his papers.
Many school-aged children in Jakarta, and probably in other cities, are in the same boat as Anto. With the crisis biting even deeper since it began in July last year, people's purchasing power has been greatly reduced and prices have skyrocketed.
Anto's father's health is ailing and the child has to help his mother support the family. His struggling parents are among those who prioritize basic necessities rather than their children's education.
Sugiono, a bajaj (three-wheeled motorized vehicle) driver is experiencing the same plight. The father of two sons, the eldest a fifth grader and the youngest a school beginner, has pulled both of them out of school.
The children have left behind their school happy days and entered the world of work. They have become street hawkers and Sugiono has to forget his ambition to see his sons become doctors.
"Everybody knows it's a hard time for poor people like me," he said while waiting for passengers on Jl. Diponegoro, Central Jakarta.
The government, apparently well-aware of the impact the crisis is having on school attendance, issued a regulation on June 11 that exempts students at state schools from paying tuition and other fees. New uniforms are no longer mandatory.
But the well-intentioned policy has been ineffective in encouraging parents to send their children to school, as the case of Anto and Sugiono illustrates.
Worse still, many schools have ignored the government policy. There have been persistent reports that many state schools ask parents for various fees as if the regulation did not exist.
"I can't remember all the fees we had to pay. Even if the sum is as little as Rp 2,000, the money means a lot to us nowadays," said Sugiono, who hails from Ponorogo, East Java.
He recalled that he was required to pay Rp 70,000 (about US$6) when his younger son enrolled in elementary school. The sum, he said, was ridiculous because his daily income had dropped to Rp 30,000 from Rp 55,000 before the crisis. About half of his earnings must be handed over to the bajaj owner. Meanwhile, prices have been soaring almost daily.
"People prefer going by bus now because it is a lot cheaper than traveling by bajaj," he said.
The number of people living below the poverty line has drastically increased since the crisis began. Statistics released by the Central Bureau of Statistics show that as of July, the number of poor people has soared to 80 million from 27.5 million before the crisis.
In Jakarta, according to the National Family Planning Board, the number of poor people has reached 1.4 million -- about 17.7 percent of the 9.5 million population. The Central Bureau of Statistics notes that in 1996, poor people in the capital represented only 2.5 percent of the then 8.7 million population.
Sociologist M. Darwis from Hasanuddin University, Ujungpandang, who has conducted research on urban poverty, predicts that in another year more and more parents will sacrifice their children's education due to the continuing crisis.
"When they have to choose, a poor family will prioritize food rather than its children's education," he says. "The family will very likely use the children to help earn a living."
In a poor community, he notes, it is natural for parents to have their children contribute toward the family's livelihood.
"In a crisis like now, it's no surprise that parents will have them work instead of sending them to school."
If Darwis is right, a substantial number of school-aged children will spend their days hawking wares in the streets or working in the fields or in factories.