Jakarta – The Central Jakarta Police have confirmed that the family of an allegedly raped child had to pay for a forensic examination themselves because the 3-year-old victim was not a participant of the Healthcare and Social Security Agency's (BPJS Kesehatan) national health scheme.
The police's women's and children's protection (PPA) unit chief, First Insp. Martiana, said, however, that the police had reimbursed the Rp 867,000 (US$60.60) cost on Wednesday.
The parents of the young girl from Central Jakarta had to pawn a motorcycle belonging to the child's aunt to cover the cost of a forensic examination at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM).
They alleged their neighbor, S, 57, had raped their daughter, who complained of pain in her genitalia. The parents immediately took their child to hospital on Friday.
The Legal Aid Foundation of Indonesian Women's Association for Justice (LBH APIK) law and public advocacy officer Khusnul Anwar said that the procedures for sexual assault victims filing a report with the police and having a forensic examination were more complicated since the introduction of BPJS Kesehatan.
"Hospitals previously never charged for examinations of abused victims. But since the central government launched BPJS Kesehatan in September last year, the hospitals no longer provide free tests for them," Anwar told The Jakarta Post.
The police, he said, were often reluctant to take victims to hospital for an examination, telling them to go to hospital themselves. Sometimes they did not reimburse victims for examination expenses because there is no obligation to do so.
"We're trying to make the central government change the procedure," Anwar said. Anwar said that, ideally, rape victims or their families should be able to access a one-stop procedure in which the police handled everything.
Martiana said a preliminary examination of the girl confirmed that she had suffered injuries to her genitalia, caused by sexual penetration. "Her hymen is intact," she said, adding that the police had detained the suspect. "He has confessed to his crime," Martiana said.
She denied that her institution demanded any payment from the parents of the victim as the mother had accused. "When a person reports a crime to us, we are obliged to provide counselling only, explaining to them about what to do," Martiana said. "Then, they should go to a hospital for a test themselves. After receiving the preliminary report, we then make a police report."
On Tuesday, local newspaper Warta Kota reported that the mother of the victim said the Central Jakarta Police had asked her to pay Rp 1.2 million for an examination on her daughter.
The mother said on Friday that her daughter came home crying, saying her vagina was hurt. The parents immediately took the child to RSCM but the hospital required them to bring a recommendation letter from the police.
"So, we went to the police for the letter, but a policewoman from the PPA unit asked us for the money," she said.
The couple had only Rp 500,000 at the time and had to pawn the motorcycle. After securing the money, the parents took their daughter to RSCM for the test. (foy)