T

he case of troubled orphanage Samuel's House has given rise to questions about the possibility of child abuse and profiteering in orphanages in Jakarta amid the lack of monitoring.

National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA), the Jakarta Police and a reputable Catholic orphanage in Jakarta have confirmed that the monitoring and control of orphanages in the city were lacking because of a shortage of human resources.

Komnas PA chairman Arist Merdeka Sirait said he had seen several cases of profiteering and child abuse at orphanages. Most of the cases, however, were resolved by the people involved in the cases and were not reported to the police.

'It is almost impossible to rely solely on institutions [such as Komnas PA and the Jakarta Social Agency] to monitor and control troubled orphanages such as Samuel's House,' he said, adding that the institutions were overwhelmed in monitoring and controlling registered orphanages due to limited manpower.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto concurred, saying that such cases were rarely reported to police.

When asked about orphanages' operational licenses, owners of troubled orphanages often argued that their licenses were being processed but that they had opened in the interim for humanitarian reasons, he added.

Dedie Kurniadi, the head of Vincentius Catholic Orphanage for boys, said that every orphanage had to register with the Social Agency to obtain an operational license. 'It is a basic security measure to prevent [profiteering and abuse],' he said.

Rikwanto said that after holding discussions with several children's observers due to the Samuel's House case, it was confirmed that some orphanages' owners did take money from sponsors for their own benefit at the expense of the children's welfare.

To anticipate such cases, he encouraged people living near orphanages to be proactive in helping monitor the orphanages as they were the ones who could observe daily activities at the orphanages. The sponsors should also become more involved in controlling the financial aspects of orphanages, he added.

Arist said that in a city like Jakarta, the monitoring and controlling of orphanages by the public were weak because people tended to be indifferent toward orphanages. For that reason, it was important for the government to make society-based regulatory units or watchdogs, he added.

'Neighborhood units [RT] and community units [RW] should be involved in the monitoring,' he told The Jakarta Post.

Arist said that the best place for a child to grow was with family and that an orphanage should be the last resort. He said Indonesia needed to shift the paradigm from orphanage-oriented to society-oriented, meaning that members of society should be responsible for taking care of abandoned or underprivileged children in their neighborhoods.

In Indonesia, many children in orphanages are not orphans but come from low-income families that cannot take care of their children.

Dedie of Vincentius also acknowledged that based on his experience, orphanages in Jakarta lacked supervision and monitoring by the government and the public.

'People might be ignorant because they do not know [that the orphanages exist],' Dedie said, adding that due to the Samuel's House case, members of the public should understand they had a responsibility toward children living at the orphanage.

He said people who sponsored an orphanage should understand that they were also responsible for the children it housed.

Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) chairman Asrorun Niam Sholeh said the KPAI and other organizations focusing on children planned to establish standard operating procedures (SOP) on how to monitor orphanages in the future to avoid another Samuel's House.

'The Social Ministry has SOP on how to establish and maintain an orphanage. [Therefore] we [will focus] on the monitoring level,' he said recently. (ask/nai)