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fter inspecting the Jatinegara rusunawa (low-cost apartments) in East Jakarta, the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) said the city administration had yet to create a child-friendly environment at the facility provided to hundreds of families evicted from Kampung Pulo, East Jakarta.

KPAI commissioner Maria Ulfah Anshor said recently she found that most of the windows in the apartments were not equipped with iron bars to prevent accidents.

'€œIt is disappointing that city administration and related institutions in the Jatinegara rusunawa project lack attention for child safety,'€ she told The Jakarta Post at the rusunawa block.

'€œNot just once or twice we have heard about children falling from apartment buildings; it should not happen here,'€ she continued.

In the recent relocations, the city administration forced 1,040 families from Kampung Pulo '€” around half of those evicted '€” to move to the 16-story rusunawa, claiming that the residents had been living illegally on riverbanks.

Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama has repeatedly said the Kampung Pulo settlers had to be evicted so that the city administration could expand the river'€™s capacity and reduce annual
floods.

During Tuesday'€™s inspection, Maria also found that the apartment block did not have a playground, adding that the recent evictions could have traumatized the children and playing would help them to move on.

'€œI don'€™t see any playground for children except a roundabout in a narrow alley. The apartments need more than that,'€ she said, adding that even if it was a low-cost facility, the city administration should meet child-friendly standards.

On that day dozens of children thronged the rusunawa'€™s hall, some running around the area while others preferred to use an elevator as their play area, without adult supervision.

Maria said she would send a recommendation for child-friendly low-cost apartments to the city administration as well as the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry, which was involved in building the rusunawa.

Dubbed one of the best low-cost apartment blocks in the city, each apartment in the Jatinegara rusunawa is 30 square meters in size, with two bedrooms. The two-tower apartment compound is also equipped with six elevators.

Nachu, an 11-year-old girl whose family was evicted from Kampung Pulo, said despite being relocated to a '€œmore modern building'€, she missed her old house and would prefer to return to Kampung Pulo if she got the chance.

She said it was frustrating to see high walls and narrow alleys everywhere, while in Kampung Pulo she could spend whole evenings with friends walking around the residential area.

'€œI was born and raised in Kampung Pulo. I don'€™t care if people call it a slum area, it was my home and it will always be,'€ she told the Post.

However, 10-year-old Mohammad Zidan did not share the same opinion, saying he was glad to be relocated to a '€œfancier residence'€ where he could take an elevator every time he wanted to enter or leave his apartment.

'€œI feel like a boss here. I have never used an elevator before and now I have to use it everyday. How cool is that?'€ he said. He added he was sure that floods would no longer be an issue for his family during the rainy season.

'€” JP/Indra Budiari