School is out for the Idul Fitri holidays, but many youngsters will have no time to play. Instead they will be on the streets looking for money.
Near the busy Tanah Abang intersection in Central Jakarta, sisters Azizah, 6, and Yuli, 8, play a card game in a small park with their cousin Kartika, 7, taking a brief break after spending the past three hours busking for coins.
Nuraini watches over her two girls, while their grandmother, assisted by Nurul, 11, another cousin, clean plastic cups to sell to a recycler.
"My husband brought them here to spend the school holidays," Nuraini said as she sat on a tiny green space sandwiched between a murky river on Jl. Jatibaru. They arrived in Jakarta on Sunday from Rangkasbitung, Banten.
Nuraini works as a housemaid in Jakarta, while her husband repairs tires for a living. The couple doesn't have a steady income to support their family, so the children help them by singing on the streets of the capital during the school holidays.
"I'd rather they didn't have to work to support us, but things are tough," Nuraini said.
Although the children can attend school for free in Rangkasbitung, their parents still have to find cash for books, uniforms, school supplies, transportation and snacks.
"I don't even know if my daughters are going to be able to finish grade school," she added.
The family depends on selling the used plastic cups for a little extra income. They can collect up to two kilograms of this plastic waste a day. One kilogram of used plastic cups is valued at Rp 6,500 (60 U.S. cents). By the end of the week, the family can save up to Rp 45,000.
Despite the hardships they endure, the children still have hopes for the future. Yuli and Kartika want to be teachers, and Azizah wants to serve in the army, while Nurul shies away when asked about what she wants to be when she grows up.
These children are among many who celebrate Idul Fitri holiday on the streets of Jakarta.
"Parents bring their children to Jakarta from their hometowns during certain seasons, and some are even brought in by
organizers to put them to work on the street," said Setyawan Cahyo of Save the Children UK.
Although there is no accurate data regarding any fluctuations in the numbers of street children in Jakarta during the fasting month or other holidays, the number of street children is increasing every year, Cahyo said.
The Indonesian government has ratified an international convention on prohibiting child labor and also regulates the protection of children from forced labor and other abuse under a 2002 law.
But some children in Jakarta are still unprotected by the laws.
When seasonal street children like Azizah and Kartika leave Jakarta for Rangkasbitung, regular ones like Yuli would reign the streets for themselves.
Yuli, still dressed in her red and white elementary school uniform, was running barefoot from one car to another to collect as many coins as she could from the people in the cars at Slipi
intersection in Central Jakarta.
Ilpan, 13, Yuli's older brother arrives a few minutes later, wearing a black shirt but still in his red school shorts and black shoes. The fifth grader at SDN Palmerah 05 Pagi elementary school is busy gluing short notes saying, "Dear sir/madam, we are singing on the streets to pay for school and our daily meals" on envelops.
"I like working on the street, it's fun, the three of us can get about Rp 160,000 (US$17) a day", he said. The third sibling was absent that day.
Their parents were also nowhere to be seen. Dayan, a middle-aged woman, who makes a living as a three-in-one "jockey" (extra passenger for cars carrying two or fewer passengers into
restricted traffic areas), an old friend of their parents, was the one who watched over them.
"Their mother asked me to take care of them," she said.
Dayan explained the parents would come by to check on their children in the afternoon, bringing them a change of clothes and food.
"Their parents will then come back to take them home before dusk," she said.
Dayan also has to watch over her own two sons, aged 14 and four, who help her work as a jockey along Jl. Gatot Subroto. (fmb)
