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W.Kalimantan regency pilots child identity card project
For a bright future: School children in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, are ready to play the angklung, a traditional bamboo music instrument from West Java, at an event recently
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For a bright future: School children in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, are ready to play the angklung, a traditional bamboo music instrument from West Java, at an event recently. Starting from March 2016, the government requires all Indonesian children aged 17 and younger to have child identity cards. (thejakartapost.com/Severianus Endi) (thejakartapost.com/Severianus Endi)
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span class="inline inline-center">For a bright future: School children in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, are ready to play the angklung, a traditional bamboo music instrument from West Java, at an event recently. Starting from March 2016, the government requires all Indonesian children aged 17 and younger to have child identity cards. (thejakartapost.com/Severianus Endi)
The Sekadau regency in West Kalimantan is set to pilot the application of child identity cards (KIA) in March as it has been appointed by the Home Ministry as among the 50 KIA pilot project areas.
The Sekadau administration's head of population affairs and civil registration, Ignatius Boni, said the regency's selection as one of KIA pilot project areas was on account of its achievement in the issuance of birth certificates for newborns and children aged up to 17 years old among areas across the province.
He said around 65 percent of newborns and children aged up to 17 years old in the regency had obtained birth certificates.
'On the appointment of Sekadau as one of KIA pilot project areas, we are ready. Actually, it's not a new thing for us. We have carried out various demography administrative services, such as the issuance of birth certificates and electronic identity cards [e-KTP],' said Boni on Tuesday.
Located around 315 kilometers from Pontianak, the province's capital, Sekadau has a population of 206,505. Its selection as among the KIA pilot project areas has been widely praised. Pontianak, the capital city of West Kalimantan, has not been selected to pilot the program.
Pontianak Deputy Mayor Edi Rusdi Kamtono said as part of demography administrative programs for children, the KIA program was very positive because every child in Indonesia would be registered by name and address'[...] We are ready if Pontianak is instructed to implement the KIA program,' said Edi.
He said Pontianak was home to around 600,000 people, around 20 percent of whom were newborns and children aged up to 17 years old.
'The population growth in Pontianak is quite high. Around 11,500 to 12,000 women give birth every year,' said Edi.
The chairman of the West Kalimantan chapter of the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI), Alik R.Rosyad, said the government should have first completed its mandatory birth certificate program before it implemented the KIA program as a birth certificate was the first and most basic document for all Indonesian children.
Alik said good administrative documentation for children would be helpful for the government in protecting children. In West Kalimantan, 20 cases of sexual violence against children were reported last year.
'In the first two months of this year, we have received 16 reports of violence against children cases, of which seven cases involved sexual violence against children. These are two most outstanding cases,' said Alik.
Pontianak Children Forum president Septian, 17, said he was not yet aware of the KIA program.
'I think it's a good program because it's impossible for us to always bring our birth certificates wherever we go,' said Septian.
Home Ministerial Regulation No.2/2016 on KIA stipulates that starting from 2016, all Indonesian children are required to have a KIA. The cards will be issued for children 17 years old and younger. (ebf)
