The working conditions of the child domestic 'servants'
influence all aspect of their life. The psychosocial and emotional
development of the child will be negatively affected. First, they
do not have time to play with their playmates or in other words
they have a limited social life. Most of them are restricted to
get acquainted with friends. The only chance for them to converse
with their peer group is when they meet other domestic workers of
the neighbors during their limited spare time, if they are allowed
by their employers to do it. Secondly, they are separated from their
parents and lost the opportunity to have familial love needed for
their development. Third, in most cases they have no time left to
get go to formal schooling or non-formal education. Only around
3% of the respondents in the rapid assessment are enrolled in school.
Out of 94.8 million labour force in Indonesia (National Survey on
Labor Force 1999, Indonesian National Bureau of Statistic), 88,8
million were reported as working and out of them 1,341,712 were
domestic workers, comprising of male 114,426 (9%), and female 1,227,286
(91%). The number of child domestic workers (10 - 18 years of age)
were 310,378 which was around 23% of all domestic workers, comprising
21,648 boys (7%) and 288,730 girls (93%). The number of the domestic
workers and the proportion of the child domestic workers as reported
by the National Survey on Labour Force 1999 is far below the estimation
of the survey on child domestic workers in Yogyakarta and the Greater
Area of Jakarta (Jabotabek) sponsored by ILO-IPEC in 1995. The estimated
number of domestic workers in the Greater Area of Jakarta only was
around 1.4 million, which was more than the number of all domestic
workers in Indonesia as mentioned by the National Survey on Labour
Force 1999. The estimated proportion of child domestic workers compared
with the total domestic workers was 55% which amounted to around
600.000 persons in the Greater Area of Jakarta in 1995, that is
almost twice the number of child domestic workers in Indonesia as
mentioned by the National Survey 1999.
The difference between the figures of the National Survey 1999 and
the estimation based on the results of the ILO-IPEC Survey 1955
is so big that we actually no reliable data on the domestic child
workers in Indonesia. The limitation of the data is perhaps due
to the invisibility of domestic workers. Based on the discussion
among the various parties during the technical workshops in the
three cities, we will take the middle numbers as the basis for developing
the programme on child domestic workers. The estimation is based
on two assumptions. Firstly, the number of domestic workers of each
city is the half of the total number of household in the respective
city. Secondly, the proportion of the child domestic labor to the
total number of domestic workers is the proportion indicated by
the National Survey of Labour Force 1999, i.e. 26% for Jakarta,
25% for Surabaya, and 44% for Denpasar. The estimated number for
each city is then 264,500 (Jakarta), 90,484 (Surabaya) and 17,538
(Denpasar). The total number of the child domestic workers of the
three cities will then amount to 372,522. The estimated number of
all child domestic workers in the country is 1,312,621.
