[Kabar-indonesia] 'Education essential in eliminating child labor in Indonesia'

[Joyo at aol.com]

The Jakarta Post
Saturday, August 12, 2006

'Education essential in eliminating child labor'

Indonesia earlier this week hosted a three-day International Labor 
Organization-APEC workshop on the elimination of the worst forms of child labor, with 
delegates attending from Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Peru and Mexico. 
Geir Mystard, the head of the ILO-APEC section on child labor, shared his view 
of child labor conditions in the country with The Jakarta Post's Ridwan Max 
Sijabat.

Question: How is the anti-child labor campaign going in Indonesia?

Answer: Indonesia's intensified education programs and its economic policies 
to alleviate poverty have raised hopes that it will be able to eliminate the 
worst forms of child labor by 2016, four years before the world target of 2020.

The government is working hard to allocate 20 percent of the state budget to 
the education sector as is required by the Constitution and to enforce the 
compulsory nine-year elementary education system. It has also distributed a huge 
amount of funds to the education and health sectors to compensate them for the 
rising fuel prices. All this will enable children to stay longer in school.

However, child labor does stand separate from these efforts. It closely 
correlates with poverty and hopefully the country's growing economy will generate 
jobs, which will help people cope with unemployment and enable the poorest 
families to send their children to school.

But the figure for child labor is too high and the issue is crucial, is it 
not?

Its root causes are indeed a crucial problem to address. Indonesia is a large 
developing country and it is not surprising to see some four million children 
do not attend school and 2.5 million of them are involved in economic 
activities.

The government and politicians should play a leading role to push for the 
constitutional requirements to be met and to make economic and education programs 
a success in the coming decade. They should realize the importance of 
developing the education sector as a long-term investment for 10 to 20 years as 
Malaysia and Singapore are doing.

The progress the country has achieved in improving its human development 
index is an encouraging sign that this big nation will be able to alleviate 
poverty and in turn, eliminate child labor.

Indonesia needs investment to help boost its economic development but the 
economy is growing not because of investment alone, but because people take part 
in economic development.

What are other groups doing to address child labor?

Of course, the problem cannot be left only to the government and politicians 
to solve. Reducing child labor needs active participation from other relevant 
groups -- mainly employers, labor unions, non-governmental organizations, 
charity foundations and parents -- to ensure child workers have free and increased 
access to education.

Employers should comply with the law to give children opportunities to take 
classes, set core labor standards and give equal treatment to all workers. 
Labor unions and NGOs can play a role by getting involved in advocacy work and 
setting up learning centers for child workers.

Thanks to the workshop, participants from Mexico, Peru and other Southeast 
Asian countries have learned much from Indonesia's experience in education and 
economic programs, especially the increased education budget, financial schemes 
for education, conditional cash transfers for the poorest people and setting 
up learning centers, to help speed up the elimination of child labor.

Do you see any major hurdles to combating child labor?

The high levels of corruption must be eliminated. The major increase in the 
education budget will not translate into the development of education 
facilities and will not reach its main target of improving the quality of human 
resources unless corruption is eradicated.

What about the abuse of children in prostitution and drug trafficking?

These are crucial issues not only for Indonesia but also for other nations in 
the region to handle. The authorities have to take harsh actions against 
individuals and syndicates involved in such crimes. All children trapped in 
prostitution and drug trafficking have no future. Besides intensifying economic 
programs to get children off the street and into schools, the government has no 
other choice but to enforce tough laws to protect at-risk families and 
communities.

Sending children to jail will not solve the problem but giving them to NGOs 
and social foundations for rehabilitation will be very helpful.

How can regional economic cooperation agreements contribute to the 
elimination of child labor?

Besides forging economic cooperation through free trade and freer labor 
markets in the region, member countries could set up core labor standards, minimum 
wages and social security programs to protect all workers in the region. The 
liberalization of the labor market will not only require all countries in the 
region to improve the quality of their human resources, it will also give them 
an opportunity to capitalize on economic and labor advantages.

------------------------------------------
Joyo Indonesia News Service
------------------------------------------