Gov’t Unveils Strategies to Eradicate Child Labor

Minister of Women Empowerment and Child Protection I Gusti Ayu Bintang Darmawati (Source: PR of Cabinet Secretariat)

In a bid to protect children’s rights in Indonesia, Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection has unveiled a number of strategies to eliminate child labor in the country.

Minister of Women Empowerment and Child Protection I Gusti Ayu Bintang Darmawati on Thursday (17/06/2021) said the eliminating child labor in Indonesia is one of five priority directives from President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo for her ministry.

“Therefore, we have set a target that the number of child workers between 10-17 years old can be decreased to the lowest number,” she said.

Bintang also said that based on the report of the National Labor Force Survey (Sakernas) in August last year, there were 392,061 child workers in Indonesia, a decrease by 41,005 child workers compared to that in 2019.

The Minister went on to say that several strategies have been implemented to eliminate child labor, including developing child labor database, strengthening coordination and collaboration between stakeholders, and mainstreaming child labor issues through child protection policies and programs in regencies and cities all over Indonesia.

In addition, she added, other strategies have also been implemented, including developing women-friendly and child-care villages as an approach to prevent child labor, developing monitoring and remediation system of child labor, and coordinating the prevention management of child labor in four priority sectors, namely agriculture, fisheries, services, and tourism.

Furthermore, Bintang underscored that it is important to immediately eliminate child labor because it has negative impacts for children’s emotion that may lead them to be vindictive or have lack of empathy, for their social life that may cause them to have no chance of going to school and playing with their friends, as well as for their physical condition that may lead them experience accidents.

Nevertheless, she also stressed several driving factors that causing child labor need to be given attention, including poverty, low level of education, limited supervision of child labor, traditional factors, lack of children facilities, and dropouts. (PR of Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection /UN) (AP/EP)