Good Practices in Indonesia

IPEC has had 67 smaller and bigger Action Programmes in Indonesia and 26 Miniprogrammes. Some of them have been successful, others have not. Among the most successful have been:

Directorate of Rural Community Development Ministry of Home Affairs:
Child labour elimination efforts as part of Government's Poverty Alleviation Programme

Poorest families targeted

Since IPEC experience shows that poverty alleviation not automatically solves child labour, it is needed to include a special child labour component in poverty alleviation programmes. In 1994, the Indonesian government launched a massive national programme on poverty alleviation (IDT programme) which covered nearly 21,000 backward villages through out the country to assist millions of households by providing credit schemes and income generating activities. This programme has been implemented by one of the most influential and powerful ministries, the Ministry of Home Affairs. IPEC started an action programme to mainstream child labour elimination into this programme with the Ministry of Home Affairs to get greater audience and impact. The target group are therewith children of the poorest families in Indonesia in the rural areas.

Awareness and training of facilitators

The project started in 6 targeted provinces by training and creating awareness among local government and facilitators of IDT programme to make them more child labour sensitive. About 240 facilitators of IDT programme of the 6 provinces received this sensitization training on child labour, which included subjects like reasons why children should not be employed, the risks of working for the children., the importance of education for the children, etc.

Removal and scholarships

At the end of the training, as part of the sensitization training programme, the IDT facilitators were asked to identify about 300 working children and to remove them from work and to provide them with scholarship support as a try out. The concrete impact was that the participating provinces allocated more than 3000 scholarships to remove working children and integrate them into available formal schools. At the end of the programme, this action programme produced a manual book for IDT facilitators on how to identify and tackle the problem of child labour.

National follow-up

The work with the ministry of home affairs has been very good. They issued a circular at the central level to instruct all governors of the 27 provinces and all heads of districts and majors to utilize available national budget and allocate sufficient local budget to support the programme of combatting child labour in their own respective areas. The positive result is that other provinces, especially major provinces who were not included in the previous programme, have started also similar activities on child labour. Replication of the programme still is taking place.

Achievements n support of the central government and local government on the importance to tackle the problem of child labour mobilized n linkages created with other prevailing government programmes i.e on poverty alleviation and the 9 years universal education programme. n programmes on child labour initiated in the remote areas where IPEC's main partners such as the workers, employers, and NGOs do not exist yet.

Yayasan Dinamika Indonesia:
Removing Working Children from Scavenging in Bantar Gebang Final Dumpsite

The problem

In Indonesia, child scavengers have been identified among this group as they are exposed to extremely hazardous substances and intolerable working conditions. At dumpsites in Bekasi, West Java, where the project is located, a survey in 1997 found 638 families earning their living from collecting and recycling waste and garbage. In spite of the appalling conditions under which they work and live, it is a permanent occupation and way of living for at least half of them. Moreover, not aware of the potential harm, for disadvantaged villagers who earn a maximum of 15,000 RS per week, moving to a dumpsite where earnings increase to between 65,000 and 100,000, is clearly considered a step ahead in life.

The data and the hazards

The survey identified 423 children between the ages of 7 and 15 working on the dumpsite. They work between 5 and 12 hours per day and are exposed to dangers of being hit by bulldozers and dump trucks, or being injured by sharp and rusty objects, which was sadly illustrated by the death of three children last year. Other children stay home and help their families sort out and clean waste materials Health check ups indicated that many of the children suffer from occupational diseases such as heavy infections, anaemia, ascariasis and trichuriasis. Naturally, very few of them attend school.

Direct action

With IPEC support, Bintang Pancasila Foundation (YBP) implemented several action programmes to assist child scavengers, since 1993. Children were removed from work and provided with non-formal education and food supplements. Of 283 children reached, 171 were given non formal education, 67 were enrolled in the formal schooling system, and 55 were given opportunities for vocational training. YSB has built up a reputation as a professional and credible NGO, and is now in a position to strengthen its advocacy role within the community and with the Government officials and to search for lasting solutions.

More sustainable approach

For scavenger children to have access to Government welfare programmes negotiations are taking place with the Government, so that children in the dumpsite do not depend on international donors only for their welfare. The programme is also concentrating more on behavioural change of parents and community by making them more aware of health risks and advantages of education.

More children on the dumpsite after the crisis

The economic crisis has drawn more families and more children to the dumpsite. More sustainable solutions are being sought.

Muhammadiyah Foster Home Foundation in Weleri:
Vocational training for children of fishery communities working in various fishery related hazardous occupations

The target group

This Action Programme was targeted at children under the age of 15 working as miang. Children working as miang are usually boys aged 11-15 years. In doing their work children are often exposed to life-threatening danger. Their job involves the setting of the dragnets in the water at night without any safety devices. Some of the most frequently reported risks include: bites from poisonous sea snakes, entangled in the net, and left unattended by the boat driver. Many children are attracted to do the job for the quick cash money. Most children have to work two or three days before they can earn a substantive amount of Rp.3000.

The action programme was also directed at pemindang, mostly girls aged 10-15. Many of them finished their primary education, but did not continue. Some of them already dropped out of primary school before completing it. In doing their job, the girls have to sit on the floor and handle salt fish without any protection for longer than 8 hours a day. It is not uncommon to find girls with irritated skin and some even show open injuries. To earn a substantive wage they need to salt approximately 1000 fish (one fish is one Rupiah).

Direct action

The children are hard to organize and guided. It is difficult to convince them and they do not care about the danger, or education. Because of their influence as religious organization, Muhammadiyah Weleri managed to convince children to participate in pre-vocational training programmes. All of them were provided with spiritual and mental guidance once a week and supplementary nutrition. The programme also offers the children basic secondary education using Package B programme.

Awareness raising

The lack of awareness of parents and communities at the village level was overcome by involving local persons as field facilitators in the programme and organizing more information meetings and discussions meetings with parents, the local communities and the local authorities. The Action Programme gained support from a private enterprise and the local Ministry of Education and Ministry of Manpower. The local Ministry of Education supported the non-formal education programme through training for tutors and providing non-formal educational programme materials (Paket A and Paket B). The local Ministry of Manpower assisted this AP by providing instruction for skills training and a provincial enterprise (ASTRA) supported the skills training (automotive) by providing instructions and equipment.

JARAK Establishment:
Network of NGOs on child labour issues

The Network

IPEC supported several Action Programmes to strengthen NGOs in dealing with working children. One of the programmes was together with Lembaga Pengkajian Kemasyarakatan dan Pembangunan (LPKP), which initiated and facilitated a network of NGOs and various activities including a national network meeting (1998). As a result an Executive Committee was established to execute the programme and activities of networking. The network is called JARAK. Now more then 60 NGOs from most provinces in Indonesia participated in the network and their activities included special training programmes, exchange programmes, seminars, etc.

Strengthening NGOs

IPEC developed a comprehensive programme called "Strengthening the Capacity for Design, Monitoring and Evaluation (DME) of child labour programmes. The DME programme has been used in Indonesia since 1993 through the Bina Swadaya Training Division. In previous phases of the programme, the emphasis was on translating the IPEC Manual and adapting it to local needs, and four courses were conducted which trained about 80 NGO staff on child labour issues and on management of their programmes. In addition, Bina Swadaya oversaw small pilot projects with organizations selected after the training.

Together with JARAK and Bina Swadaya, a new programme is running, which will:
n train (potential) child labour partners in Eastern Indonesia
n establish a one-stop shop facility run by JARAK for organizations who were trained and require services related to project design and implementation and child labour issues. The service will also provide advice on resource mobilization and public relations

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