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n a small room at Komaruddin Rusunawa (low-cost rental apartment) in East Jakarta, a couple of toddlers color in the new coloring books they received just a day before while a few meters away Fika Agrelece, their early childhood education center (PAUD) teacher, continues to put the toys back on the shelves.

Surya Kasih, a PAUD established by the ReachOut Foundation in the Komaruddin Rusunawa, has 90 students, most of whom are children who live in the apartment compound.

Fika said students at the Rusunawa preferred to play at the PAUD room since their nearby playground, which was built for the children, was damaged after being used as a hangout place by local teenagers.

'€œThe seesaw, swing, slides and other attractions cannot be used any longer. The children have lost their playground,'€ Fika said.

She argued that Rusunawa management should rebuild the area immediately because to do so would help children develop by allowing them to have more outdoor activities area and experience more of the world.

Pressure has been mounting on the Jakarta Administration to make sure that Rusunawa, most of which are inhabited by evicted residents, are built taking into account the safety of children.

An accident that took place earlier this month at the Marunda Rusunawa in North Jakarta has stirred unrest among the Rusunawa residents. Yusuf, a resident at the Rusunawa, said a 7-year-old boy who lived in the apartment passed away recently after falling from the third floor of the apartment complex.

Yusuf said the boy fell down when he was playing with some friends on the staircase of the third floor. '€œI don'€™t know how the incident happened exactly, but the boy just suddenly fell to the ground floor and died instantly,'€ he said.

In 2010, the death of 4-year-old Yohanes Daniel from the fourth floor of Petamburan Rusunawa in Central Jakarta also brought Rusunawas under scrutiny. Some people were certain that the parapets in that particular Rusunawa were not sufficient to prevent children from climbing over them.

During a recent inspection of the Jatinegara Rusunawa in East Jakarta, the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) found that the city administration had yet to create a child-friendly environment at the housing compound.

Having found that most of the windows in the apartment were not equipped with iron bars to prevent accidents, KPAI commissioner Maria Ulfah Anshor called out the city administration and related institutions involved in the construction project for their '€œlack of attention for child safety'€.

Contacted separately, National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA) chairman Arist Merdeka Sirait said while the city administration holds responsibility for outlining safety considerations for children when building a Rusunawa, the neighborhood was also responsible for taking care of each other.

'€œRTs [neighborhood units] and RWs [community units] in the rusuna must also take on the role of supervising teams to prevent crimes [or accidents] against children,'€ he said.

'€œFurthermore, if the neighbors had looked out for each other, the recent incident in Pinus Elok could have been prevented,'€ he said. Arist was referring to a case that took place recently in Pinus Elok Rusunawa in East Jakarta, where a 3-year-old girl was sexually abused by her neighbor. The police have arrested the perpetrator and will charge him with sexual assault. The perpetrator could face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.