Troubling statistics and incidents of violence against children this year marked Indonesia’s Children’s Day, commemorated every July 23.
The recorded number of acts of violence against children this year reached almost 2,000 by May, National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA) chairman Arist Merdeka Sirait told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
“Komnas PA recorded an increase [in reported cases] between 2008 to 2010. In 2008, we received 1,726 reports and 1,998 reports in 2009. What’s surprising is that from January to May, the number has reached 1,826,” he said.
Arist said most cases reported were of physical and sexual violence.
“Some cases are unnerving, such as the parent who broke their child’s bones because the child wouldn’t stop crying, or the parent sodomizing all three of his children,” he said.
Last month, a 30-year old mother was questioned by North Jakarta Police for allegedly abusing her five-month-old baby.
Arist added that the state should intervene in these matters to prevent more from recurring. “The family and community cannot handle this matter alone anymore,” he said.
Poverty and its effects play a large part in the incidents of violence because economic problems breed dysfunctional families, which could result in violence within the family, Arist said.
NGO World Vision Indonesia national director Amelia Merrick said at least 32 million Indonesian children lived in poverty-stricken families. “This condition affects several aspects of the children’s lives.
Many children from poor families have a hard time accessing decent health and education services,” she said in a statement.
Her statement cited other statistics, such as that 13 million Indonesian children suffered from malnutrition every year and at least 500 died everyday due to preventable causes, such as diarrhea and complications during their mother’s pregnancies.
“As many as 2.5 million children between 7 to 15 years old don’t get nine years of primary education
and 486,426 children drop out of school at the primary level,” the statement read.
The Indonesian Women’s Coalition on Thursday called for the government to take action against what they saw as another threat to children’s well being: child marriages. The coalition said such marriages disadvantaged the children and deprived them of their rights to education and making choices for the future.
“In some cases, child marriage is also used as a reason to employ and traffic children,” the statement read.
The coalition quoted data from Komnas PA and the Religious Affairs Ministry that said that last year, there were at least 600,000 underage marriages.
The statement also said the main factor at play in child marriages was the 1974 Marriage Law. This law allows girls as young 16 years old to get married. The marriage law also allows those under 16 to marry if the parents obtain permission from a religious court.
Arist said the government should establish crisis centers in neighborhoods to deal with the violence. “The government should conduct a public campaign [against the violence],” he said.
The Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry said at a coordination meeting last month that it had successfully established guidelines and minimum service standards to protect children in regions.
However, the statement also acknowledged problems such as the lack of law enforcement officials’ skills in protecting and dealing with children.
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