Agency to continue screening street children despite police withdrawal

Jakarta Social Services Agency announced Thursday it would continue with its plan to screen street children to determine whether they have been victims of sexual abuse despite the Jakarta Police's withdrawal from the plan.  

Agency head Budihardjo, however, denied reports saying the assessment program would include rectal examinations.

"Our officers and assisting social workers will only interview the street children to look into their personal backgrounds," he said in a press conference Thursday.

"If our officers find, or the children themselves admit, that they have ever been sodomized or sexually assaulted, we will then ask the police to follow up the report."

Following the recent uproar over the number of child sex abuse and mutilation cases, the agency and the police were reported to run Thursday a physical screening of street children in Jakarta’s five municipalities.

The plan, however, has drawn the ire of child rights activists. The National Commission for Child Protection’s secretary-general, Arist Merdeka Sirait, slammed the exercise as “a violation” of the children’s rights.