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overnor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s plan to make the capital child friendly was lauded by many, yet observers are saying that the city administration has a huge task before reaching its goal.

Urban planning expert from Trisakti University, Yayat Supriyatna, said that the city should produce a specific bylaw on the matter as a means to force all agencies, institutions, businesspeople and the citizens in general to heed the plan.

He said that Jakarta is overcrowded and lacked public facilities to support this plan. Jokowi should also incorporate the plan in his medium-term development planning (RPJM), he added.

'€œWith a set of regulations, any development plans will also consider the development of children,'€ he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. '€œBy merely a simple statement and action from Jokowi alone, it will be difficult.'€

Yayat went on to say that the bylaw on spatial planning does not contain much about the obligation to provide children space. '€œThe city also doesn'€™t enforce laws to prohibit child labor. This is exploitation and Jokowi has to look into this.'€

Yayat said that it was time that Jakarta has similar bylaws to those of six other cities that had already introduced them.

'€œTake Bandung for example. There, children can play and learn at the Traffic Park. Here, there'€™s no such thing,'€ he said.

National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA) secretary-general Samsul Ridwan said that all stakeholders should support the plan or it would not be successful.

Echoing Yayat, Samsul said that the administration should incorporate the plan in its development planning, to show that it is serious about it. He defined a child friendly city as one in which development plans acknowledge children'€™s rights.

'€œWithout this, I think the child friendly city name will only be a label,'€ he said.

According to Samsul, Jokowi did succeed in making Surakarta, Central Java, where he used to
be a mayor, a more child friendly city. '€œWe hope he can also do it here,'€ he said.

Jakarta has around three million children, either studying in schools or working, who are in need of more public spaces to be designated for them.

Deputy Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama has said that Jakarta will be open to all migrants who have a job in the city, possibly making the city even more crowded.

Jokowi said on Monday that he would establish a children'€™s forum, open spaces, libraries and other facilities to support his plan. He said he would also build parks with playgrounds around the capital.

Jokowi said he would channel his plan through the municipalities for implementation. Central Jakarta, South Jakarta and North Jakarta will pilot the project.

East Jakarta, which the commission says has recorded the highest number of child abuse cases, is not on the administration'€™s list yet. Jokowi, however, said that the administration had yet to establish specific areas within the three municipalities where the child friendly city programs would run.

Commission chairman Arist Merdeka Sirait lauded the administration'€™s plan, but said it was important for the administration to propose a measurable set of parameters that could qualify the three municipalities as models for other municipalities in creating a child friendly city.

The commission recorded 2,637 child abuse cases in Greater Jakarta last year '€” 1,075 of these cases incorporated some sexual dimension.

Psychologist Tiwin Herman was optimistic that Jokowi and Basuki could make Jakarta a child friendly city, although it would take time.

'€œChildren here don'€™t have playgrounds, when in fact for children, playing means learning,'€ Tiwin said.

'€œBuild malls for children, playgrounds and more. Even Monas [National Monument] is surrounded with fences,'€ she said.

Tiwin added that the administration should also focus on increasing security in the city, which she said was '€œno longer humane'€.