Hundreds of thousands of children neglected, forced to work

Panca Nugraha, The Jakarta Post, Mataram | Thu, 02/12/2009 2:33 PM  

The West Nusa Tenggara Social, Demography and Vital Statistics Agency recorded 227,633 cases of child neglect in 2008, 24,705 of which involved children below the age of five. 

Based on the official data published by the provincial statistics agency this year, the victims of child neglect are scattered over seven regencies and municipalities; West Lombok (79,878 children), Central Lombok (5,760), East Lombok (84,673, West Sumbawa (174), Sumbawa (12,438) Dompu (8,755), Bima (8,286), Mataram city (24,058) and Bima city (3,601). 

Children between the ages of 5 and 18 categorized as neglected generally come from very poor families and have to work to supplement the family income. Provincial social office head Bachruddin confirmed the high number of child neglect victims in West Nusa Tenggara, adding that the data used indicators regulated in Law 23/2002 on child protection. 

The indicators include children who work to supplement the family's income for at least four hours per day and whose basic rights, such as education and social interaction, are not met. 

"The figure of more than 200,000 of the province's total population of 4.2 million is fantastic because it refers to the child protection law, and there are a great number of parents in this province requiring their children to earn income for the family," Bachruddin said. 

Based on data from a survey by the social office children are employed in a number of ways, as horse carriage drivers, farm laborers and in the pottery industry. 

"They work for more than four hours a day and so are listed as victims of child neglect," Bachruddin said. 

He added the high number of neglected children in the province was attributed to the poverty issue, because those listed generally come from very poor families, which according to the office's data stood at 369,236 families. 

The huge interest among people to work as migrant workers, he said, had also triggered the high rate of victims of child neglect in the province, because the migrant workers usually entrust their children to relatives, or neighbors, when they are working overseas. 

Bachruddin said the provincial administration could only take care of 6,865 of the hundreds of thousands of neglected children due to limited funds, while the role played by the community through foster homes took up another 10,453 of them.