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Baby painted silver in Pamulang investigated by police
A 10-month-old baby in Pamulang, South Tangerang, has gone viral after a picture of him painted entirely in silver circulated online.
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Exploited?: A baby covered entirely with silver paint was brought by 'silver humans' to the street to help them make more money (Courtesy of @tangsel_update on Instagram). (Instagram/Courtesy of Tangsel Update)
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10-month-old baby in Pamulang, South Tangerang, has gone viral after a picture of him painted entirely in silver circulated online on Friday. The baby was taken to a gas station on Jl. Parakan by two manusia perak (silver humans) to help them collect money. In the past year, many struggling Indonesians have taken to the street, painting themselves from head to toe in silver, to busk and make money.
South Tangerang Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) officers traced reports of the baby and located his whereabouts.
"We found that the baby [and his mother] live on Jl. Salak, on a lease. Now, we are taking them to social services for further action," Muksin Al-Fachry, head of investigation at the city’s Satpol PP, said on Saturday, Detik.com reported.
Muksin said the baby’s mother, identified only as NK, was a 21-year-old manusia perak, who busked on the street daily, covered in silver paint. She often entrusted her baby to her neighbors, with the initials E and B, who were also 'silver people'.
During the incident, E and B brought NK’s baby to the street and painted him silver without NK’s knowledge. NK only found out after her baby had been returned.
E and B gave NK "Rp 20,000 [US$1.40] as an allowance to buy diapers and milk," said Muksin.
Muksin emphasized that Satpol PP officers would keep an eye on people who exploited toddlers around South Tangerang to make sure it did not happen again.
Chairman of the Indonesian Child Protection Agency (LPAI) Seto Mulyadi criticized the incident.
"It is clear that this is child exploitation in the economic field. It absolutely cannot be justified," he said to Kompas.com on Monday, adding that painting a baby silver was very dangerous for its health.
Manusia perak are street performers covered in metallic paint who carry cardboard boxes to collect donations. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a rise in manusia perak in Jakarta.
“The manusia perak phenomenon is one of the impacts of [the pandemic],” said Ngapuli Perangin-angin, head of the Central Jakarta Social Affairs Agency, on Nov. 11, 2020, as quoted by antaranews.com.
Ngapuli explained that the crisis had so severely impacted people’s finances that more people in the capital had resorted to alternative means of earning an income, including by becoming manusia perak.
In October last year, tribunnews.com also reported an increase in people with children seen begging in the populous areas of Medan, North Sumatra, and the wider region. Diah, a woman quoted in the report, admitted that she received more money when she brought her child along.
