“Not only we did we find them during the New Year’s Eve celebration, we also find ondel-ondel regularly on the streets. An ondel-ondel group comprises six to eight members, half of whom are usually children under the age of 18,” KPAI commissioner Susianah Affandy said in a written statement on Wednesday.

Susianah added that based on the report the commission received from Forum Rumah Singgah, anak ondel were street children who previously worked on the streets as buskers or sold tissues before the implementation of Government Regulation No. 44/2017 on social movements toward an Indonesia free from street children.

However, the regulation only removed them from the main streets, but did not address their welfare needs.

According to data from the Social Affairs Ministry, 16,290 street children were recorded in 21 provinces last year, a significant decrease from 2006 when there were 232,894.

Susianah said the Jakarta administration through its social affairs agency had removed children from the streets through social treatment programs and an observation and control (P3S) taskforce, but did little to rehabilitate them after they had been placed in social welfare institutions.

This encouraged the street children to become ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta’s residential areas.

“These children are vulnerable to violence [physical, sexual and mental]. They are also prone to being exploited sexually or economically, to diseases, trafficking, smoking, alcohol and illegal drugs, free sex, etc.,” Susianah said.

She added that the commission had coordinated with the Social Affairs Ministry to address the matter and asked the government to provide better care and assistance for street children.

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