Jakarta – The government has failed to strictly enforce the Child Protection Law in regards to the increasing number of underage workers, despite the law having been passed nine years ago.

According to the National Commission on Child Protection, there were 2.1 million children aged under 15 years old in 2008 found in risky workplaces across the nation.

"They are working in jobs classified as the worst forms of child labor, like on farms, in factories, in mines, or even as prostitutes," the secretary-general of the commission Arist Merdeka Sirait said Friday.

The commission recorded 1.8 million child workers in 2007. "An extra 300,000 child workers within just one year is a very significant number," he said.

International Labor Organization (ILO) data showed 1.1 million Indonesian children under the age of 15 were working in 2007, and of that 40 percent, or 440,000, were girls.

Arist said the government had not done enough to fight child labor despite the enactment of the child protection law in 2000. The law is a ratification of the 1999 ILO convention No. 182 concerning the prohibition and immediate action for the elimination of the worst forms of child labor.

"Unfortunately, the law has become a 'paper tiger'. The government has failed to produce concrete programs to implement the legislation. They have established a lot of policies and institutions but has taken no significant action.

"No need to look at the children working at the palm plantations in remote areas in Kalimantan, or those in the fishing ships in the Maluku sea. Just look around Jakarta, and you can find hundreds of child street musicians at the traffic lights."

Job opportunities for children have tempted parents to send their children to workplaces, Arist said. (bbs)