TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Lawmakers push for child-friendly cities
Change Size
Locals gather at Harapan Mulian children's park in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, on June 12. (Photo courtesy of beritajakarta.com/Rudi Hermawan)
L
awmakers have urged the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry to increase its efforts to create child-friendly cities across Indonesia amid recent cases of sexual violence against children.
Minister Yohana Yembise attended a hearing at the House of Representatives Commission VIII overseeing religious and social affairs on Monday regarding the ministry's budget.
Nasdem politician Tri Murny questioned Yohana's ministry for not specifying the funding allocations for the development of child-friendly cities to be given to regional administrations in the ministry's 2017 draft budget.
National Awakening Party (PKB) faction lawmaker Maman Imanulhaq stressed the importance of the ministry’s continual support for the development of child-friendly cities.
Meanwhile, Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) lawmaker Ledia Hanifa Amaliah said that programs must be implemented with care, specifically those in the field of health care. She also condemned community health centers (puskemas) who had defied a Health Ministry regulation and advised parents of babies less than 1 month old to feed their children infant formula before the recommended age.
"In reality, these health centers who define themselves as 'child-friendly', act in the interest of [infant formula] companies that give them funding,” Ledia said in the hearing.
There are several requirements for a city to be named child friendly, one of them being strategies for eradicating child abuse. (rin)
