Jakarta – The International Labor Organization (ILO) launched a new project involving the National Teacher's Union (PGRI) and other workers' unions to fight child labor in Indonesia, inaugurated Wednesday by ILO country director Alan Boulton.
"Through this new project, the labor unions, together with the teachers' union, can play a greater role by forming meaningful allies and building concrete actions to combat child labor and to ensure that children stay in school," Boulton told the gathering in Jakarta.
He added the project would focus on minimizing the worst forms of child labor. "These worst are, for example, prostitution, jobs involving drug dealing, and jobs that can harm the child's physical condition," he said.
The program was sponsored by RENGO, the confederation of Japanese workers' unions, which allocated US$130,000 from its budget. The confederation is the largest in Japan, featuring 6.8 million members.
Indonesia ratified ILO Convention No. 38 on the minimum working age, and Convention No. 182 concerning the prohibition and immediate action for the elimination of the worst forms of child labor. However, the use of underage workers is still widespread in the country.
A national labor survey shows the population of working children aged 10 to 17 in 2007 was 2,749,353 out of Indonesia's population of roughly around 237 million.
That figure was an increase from the previous year, which was a little more than 2.5 million. However, it is a decrease from the number in 2005, which was more than 3 million.
East Java, with 423,391 working children, topped the list in 2005, with Central Java following at a little more than 365,000. West Java was third with 264,695.
"Girls are most likely to work as domestic servants and prostitutes, while boys usually work in plantations and fishing-related jobs," said Arum Ratnawati, the ILO's national chief technical adviser for the International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor.
She added the program would be carried out between 2009 and 2011 in the three areas with the biggest number of child laborers.
Unifah Rosyidi, PGRI's representative for international affairs, said at the same occasion that the union would train teachers to play a persuasive role for stakeholders, such as children and parents, to keep children in school.
"The teachers will adopt interesting and creative methods to keep children attending school, and we will also persuade local authorities to disburse funds to make school more affordable," she said.
Arum added teachers had advocacy power with the government, pointing out, "For instance, they have the right to demand better education systems."
She also said the program would see two methods of fighting underage work: prevention, and pulling children out of the working world. "We might, for instance, pull 6,000 children out of the working world from 2008 to 2011, and prevent 16,000 more from entering that world."
Unifah said a compulsory education period of 12 years would also help prevent children entering the working world too soon. Currently, Indonesia's compulsory education period is nine years.
Activists have urged the government to do more to put street children back in schools, and to enforce the child protection and child labor laws. They say the government risks violating the laws if it fails to eradicate child labor.
Legislators have also raised similar concerns, threatening to bring the issue before their plenary, or even use their right to inquiry if the situation endures. (dis)