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Letters: Street children - the way of life?
Leya Cattleya, congratulations on your letter in The Jakarta Post (Sept
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eya Cattleya, congratulations on your letter in The Jakarta Post (Sept. 24, p. 17). However, if your question is, will enforcing 100 percent basic child education keep children out of the streets, then the answer will most likely be: only partially.
Ask yourself: What are the incentives and disincentives that keep children on the street? Child beggars might also be going to school (when you saw them, it was during the holidays), although there is a huge likelihood that they are not going.
As for incentives, street kids have a high economic value, even higher than the disfigured, disabled and the blind, because as soon as we see them, our conscience is touched (including yourself), and thus we are more likely to give them money, and hence they are able to generate more income than their fellow beggars.
The younger the child, the more outrageous the reality, and thus the greater the likelihood of your pulling out your wallet and handing over money. This is what keeps the industry going. Also, you may not like hear this, but some street kids have adjusted to street life and actually enjoy it.
For some of them it has truly become a way of life. They earn money (OK, a small amount after the abusive profit sharing) and are then able to buy some snacks that they can enjoy or do the things that they want to do without parental interference.
This means that even though the government enforces basic education, those street children may find school life boring. And if there is no parental support and oversight (particularly if they see their children as potential breadwinners), then the likelihood that they stay in school - despite government requirements for education - is pretty much zero.
On the disincentives side, we can see that there is little of that as street pimps are able to adequately compensate low-level government officials such that even though the government is trying to crack down on the beggar enterprise, they are unsuccessful. This is big business.
The government should impose even stronger penalties to deter people from entering this lucrative industry, within the government system itself as well as in the enforcement/monitoring system. But that requires a more than adequate budget.
I agree that it's a massive shame, but unless the parents and pimps have better economic alternatives, they will continue to abuse what is abuse-able and lucrative.
Danya Hakim
Jakarta
