---------------------------------------------------------- Visit Indonesia Daily News Online HomePage: http://www.indo-news.com/ and click banner our sponsor ---------------------------------------------------------- JERMAL - WHERE THE POVERTY KILLS CHILDREN IN INDONESIA A Case of Child Abuse which Cause Victims in Indonesia A Literature Study by Eva Mazrieva (#1) The phenomena of child labor always come out when the child problem is discussed, not only because of "the global caused" like industrialization but also "the conventional" one like poverty. The problem becomes worse when we can not find the definite number about the child labor and the field of endeavor. According to the International Labor Organization - International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC)(#2) , there were about 100 until 200 million child labor around the world. About 80% were in the developing countries like Indonesia. But according to Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) Number 7/3/1996 page 18, the child labor number can be specified like = 17.5 million in India, 6.5 million in Pakistan, 6.2 million in Bangladesh, 1.6 million in Thailand and 2.4 million in Indonesia. The number of child labor in Indonesia is about 11% from the total population of children around 10-14 years of age. The number is not including the children who work in the informal sector like = newspaper seller, shoes polisher, children who work in the garbage area or who helping their parents as a farmer or fisherman. The number is also not including the child labor who work under 10 years of age. While since the economic crisis hit Indonesia in the middle of 1997, there were many children under 10 years old have to stay in the street -- to sing and beg. In Indonesia, the worst problem is because we do not have a formal regulation that legally organize the child labor. Even if we have many rules, it seems that they taking leave of each other. Like the State Law Number 1/1951 that become the opposite of the PERMENNAKER (the Minister of Manpower Regulation) Number 1/1987 (#3). Eventhough Indonesia has ratified the 1989 Child Convention in 1990 but we never apply it. The direct effect for the child is that there is no protection for them. We can not forbid the existence of child labor because this is the best solution they find in helping the family's economic problem. Poverty, the minimum of education level, and a young age of a child have made them become very easy to exploit. Children becomes as the most favorite object, not only because that they can be the cheapest resources but also because that they never make a problem of their rights. They are more diligent, very easy to organize and do not have enough power to act against all the cruel rules or disciplines. They never asks too much about their working hour or their wage. In a simple word, they almost do not have any bargaining power at all. The worst condition of child labor is happened in jermal. Jermal is an offshore fisher's house that was built by wood measures about 50m2 or less. We have to take a trip for more than two hours by boat to reach a jermal. Every jermal has a small house corrugated metal roof. The child labor in jermal should work for more than 19 hours per day. They job are catch fish with some tools, dry the fish, select the best one and dry it again until they ready to package. Their wages are about 45,000 until 70,000 per month or about 75 until 101 cent per hour. Many children who work in the jermal are the bounded or tied labor (#4). All child labor in jermal cannot go back to their home for some months or even years. They are really isolated from their family, friend, child environment, school, or society. According to the Indonesian Statistical Bureau based on the letter of permission to build a jermal, there were about 369 jermal in 1993. But the Board of Indonesian Fishermen has a bigger number because one letter of permission was used to built four or five jermal at once. It means there were about 1,600 jermal with more than 5,000 child who work as the jermal labor in Medan, North Sumatra. The jermal labor problem is more than just because they have been already bounded forever or the minimum of social welfare facility. Except the disease, the children were also got four kind of abuse in jermal = emotional, verbal, physical and sexual abuse. The fight between children around 10-19 years old that happens every day is only because of a single cigarette, fried cassava or sexual actions. The younger child should be used to some sexual abuse like embrace, stroke their sexual organs or rape. It shows us that jermal became as the dangerous place for our children to work. Since it was not only dangerous to their physical and psychological development but also the damage of their body functions permanently. ILO also made a recommendation in their report "Targeting the Intolerable" that was released in 1996 that mentioned jermal as a place that cannot be tolerable any longer. Children who work in jermal, mine, prostitution area, factory or unirrigated agriculture field that used chemical compound are categorize as the children who become as the part of modern slavery. Actually this international pressure has a great impact in helping child labor to get their rights back. The world protection makes their work susceptibility become more valuable. The international pressure to all countries who used child labor becomes as the requirement in this global economic era. Many countries have more concern with the welfare of child labor. At the beginning, the existence of cheap human resources becomes as the power to attract investor intention. Then all countries that become as the import target has put the social dumping concept in their economic agreement. Indonesia has already felt the effect twice in 1993 and 1997, when United States threat to withdraw the facility of generalized system of preference (GSP)(#5). One of the qualification to get this GSP facility back is the improvement labor condition. The labor situation should fulfill the international standard like = the existence of labor union, sufficient wages, the social welfare facility and proper education to all worker and the requirement not to using worker under age. Indonesia has succeed in getting back this GSP facility in 1993 and 1997. However since the economic crisis hit Indonesia, the labor condition is getting worse again now. The government is too busy in restoring this economic problem and it seems that the child labor problem becomes forgotten accidentally. Completing this article I also would like to add more information about the 1989 United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child. The conventions' most important point is that all actions concerning the child shall take full account of his or her best interest. 1. The state must protect the child from any form of discrimination. 2. The state shall provide the child with adequate care when parents or other charged with that responsibility, fail to do so. 3. The state must respect the rights and responsibilities of parents and the extended family to provide guidance for the child which is appropriate to her or his evolving capacities. 4. Every child has the inherit right to life and the state has an obligation to ensure the child's survival and development. 5. The child has the right to a name at birth. The child also has the right to acquire a nationality and to know his or her parent and be cared for by them. 6. The state must protect and if necessary, reestablish basic aspects of the child's identity, including name, nationality and family ties. 7. The child a a right to live with his or her parents unless this is deemed to be incompatible with the child's best interests. The child also has the right to maintain contact with both parents if separated from one or both. 8. Children and their parents have the right to leave any country and to enter their won for purposes of reunion or the maintenance of the child-parent relationship. 9. The state has an obligation to prevent and remedy the kidnapping or retention of children abroad by a parent of third party. 10. The child has the right to express his or her opinion freely and to have that opinion taken into account in any matter of procedure affecting the child. 11. The child has the right to express his or her views, obtain information, make ideas or information known, regardless of frontiers. 12. The state shall respect the child's right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, subject to appropriate parental guidance. 13. Children have a right to meet with others and to join or form associations. 14. Children have the right to protection from interference with privacy, family, home and correspondence, and from libel or slander. 15. The state shall ensure the accessibility to children of information and material from a diversity of sources and it shall encourage the mass media to disseminate information which is of social and cultural benefit to the child, and take steps to protect him or her from harmful materials. 16. Parents have the responsibility to rear and develop the children; the state helps working parents so that their children can receive care and facilities. 17. The state shall protect the child from all forms of maltreatment by parents or others responsible for the care of the child, and take measures to prevent the child from abuses. 18. The state must provide special protection for a child deprived of the family environment and ensure that appropriate alternative family care or institutional placement is available in such cases. 19. Adoption shall only be carried out in the best interest of the child and only with the authorization of competent authorities and safeguards for the child. 20. Special protection shall be granted to a refugee child or to a child seeking refugee status. 21. A disabled child has the right to special care, education and training to help him or her enjoy a full and decent life in dignity and achieve the greatest degree or self-reliance and social integration possible. 22. The child has a right to health and medical care. 23. The child has the right to benefit from social security including social insurance. 24. Every child has the right to a standard of living adequate for his or her physical mental, spiritual, moral and social development. 25. The child has a right to education. The state's duty is to ensure that primary education is free and compulsory to encourage different forms of secondary education accessible to every child and to make higher education available to all on the basis of capacity. 26. Children of minority communities and indigenous populations have the right to enjoy their own culture and to practice their own religion and language. 27. The child has the right to leisure, play and participation in cultural and artistic activities. 28. The child has the right to be protected from work that threatens his or her health, education or development. The state shall set minimum ages for employment and regulate working conditions. 29. Children have the right to protection from the use of narcotic and psychotropic drugs and from being involved in their production or distribution. 30. The state shall protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse, including prostitution and involvement in pornography. 31. It is the state's obligation to make every effort to prevent the sale, trafficking and abduction of children. 32. The child has the right to protection from all forms of exploitation. 33. The state shall take all measures to ensure that children under 15 years of age have to direct part in hostilities. No child below 15 shall be recruited into the armed forces. 34. The state must ensure that child victims of armed conflicts, torture, neglect, maltreatment or exploitation receive appropriate treatment for their recovery and social reintegration. 35. No child shall be subjected to torture, cruel treatment or punishment, unlawful arrest or deprivation of liberty. Both capital punishment and life imprisonment without the possibility of release are prohibited for offenses committee by persons below 81 years. 36. A child in conflict with the law has the right to treatment which promotes the child's sense of dignity and worth, takes the child's age into account and aims at his or her reintegration into society. The child is entitled to basic guarantees as well as legal or other assistance for his or her defense. Although Indonesia has ratified this convention in 1990 but we never apply it at all. While this convention is the only law that forbid child under 14 years of age to work in any area at all explicitly. Indonesia has never ratified the ILO Convention Number 59 (#6) and Number 138 (#7) too. Finally, we should not forget that the main problem that makes child decided to work outside their home is structural poverty (#8). This kind of poverty used to happen in every developing and poor countries, such as Indonesia. Things could get worse in this economic crisis. While the social safety net, one of the Habibie's' Government program to safe the poor is not enough. Especially when the corruption, collusion and nepotism culture that has been known for more than 32 years is still around. It becomes our job to solve it together. Cause together everyone achieve more!! ----------- Footnotes ------------ #1) The writer is a "child and women abuse" observer, graduate of Social and Political Science Faculty majoring Social Welfare, University of Indonesia; and a member of Gerakan Sarjana Jakarta (Jakarta Intellectual Movement). #2) IPEC or The International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor is a program that was found by the International Labor Organization -- an international labor committee in the United Nation. The program was found in 1990 with the donation from German. The IPEC Program was started by six member, which are Indonesia, India, Thailand, Turk, Brazil and Kenya. The realization of this program in Indonesia has been started since 1992. At the beginning, the program operation is just to create a conducive climate in solving child labor problem and also create specific regulation or strategy as recommend in international standard. There are 15 countries join this IPEC program now. The donation is not only from German but also from United States, France, Norway, Spain and Belgium. #3) Indonesian State Law Number 1/1951 has forbidden child under 14 to be worked in formal labor area, but the Manpower Minister Regulation allow and admit their (child under 14) existence in formal labor area. The Manpower Minister Regulation also classify them as the "child who had to work". The other case is the 1979 Indonesian Child Welfare Law (which mention child right under 21) but become the opposite of the National Education Law (which mention child right under 15). #4) The bounded or tied labor was a feudal pattern of Indonesian labor. It happens because the child's parents have debt to the owner of jermal and they have to let their children work in jermal to pay their debt. The value of child labor is estimated by the owner of jermal. In this case, all of the child wages should be returned to the owner as soon as possible or the owner will multiply their debt with more interest in order to tied them for the rest of their life. #5) The GSP (generalized system preference) is a facility to relief the import duty for some commodity that are exported to United States. The GSP facility is really an Indonesian big benefit in competing with other countries' product. #6) The ILO Convention Number 59 is about the age minimum limitation to work in industry area. #7) The ILO Convention Number 138 is about the age minimum limitation of a child who allow and admit to work. #8) The Indonesian sociologist, Selo Soemardjan, simplify structural poverty as the poverty situation that happen naturally since the society can not use the source of society's social structure -- human, natural or capital sources. This could be the famer who doesn't have his own wet rice field or if the have it, it is not enough to feed his family. The unskilled labor and the small entrepreneur without capital or facility from the government can also be classified as the society who can not use the source of its own society's social structure. Forwarded Messages (Translated): ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Translation for subject = "Offshore Fisher's House or JERMAL that cause victim". Thursday, December 24th, 1998. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- From: (EU) Subject: Re: JERMAL, SEKALI LAGI MEMBAWA KORBAN (Korban TERI MEDAN) Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 21:13:07 +0000 A few weeks ago I was asked by a German TV "Pro 7" to translate a documentary film about offshore fisher's house (jermal) in Germany. The word of jermal is an odd word and in our next conversation I was still asking what is the meaning of jermal. After I got more detail explanation, then I realize that jermal is a place which is in the middle of the sea measures about 50m2, that can stand by implanted wood's mast to the bottom of the sea -- in this place many children under twelve years old are working for 24 hours In bad condition that can touch our heart, just to get minimum wages around 150,000 rups per months. These children work night and day just to caught fish (one of the production is Medan's tiny sea fish, favorite of Indonesian and known as teri), dry it until become a full production package. All children should make their contract orally to the owner of jermal, that they will not leave the jermal for about three months -- but actually many of them can not leave the jermal for more than one year. To disclosed the modern slavery in jermal, I really ask the KKSP Foundation to send an e-mail to me, remembering my agreement to the Pro 7 German TV in not to published this information before the film is broadcasted. But instead of this one, we must realize that actually the Medan's tiny sea fish or teri which has become our favorite is the result of modern slavery that happen to our children -- in a country that always claimed as an Pancasila's country. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Translation for subject = "Offshore Fisher's House or JERMAL that cause victim". Monday, December 7th, 1998. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- > From: "KKSP Foundation" > Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1998 10:53:52 +0700 Last September 1998, Tony -- a jermal worker who is only 16 years old has died in a jermal in Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra. Many sources mentioned that Tony was died because of the disease that he had for more than two months, which can not get treatment properly. His death added the number of jermal's victim. It became a big question when the Government, represented by some regional parliament member, had already visited to the jermal and they only saw jermal as one of the donation source for regional taxation. According to them, the regional tax could become more that 3,2 million per year. It was really a big number, especially if we remember the crisis that have hit Indonesia. But the question is = is it okay that just for 3,2 million then our Government ignored the human right ? Especially our child's right ? It was really ironic! While they could see from a report in Waspada Daily Newspaper the condition of all children that were worked in jermal. But maybe it was really not touch their heart. But I have to explain that actually the team was built after Mr. Habibie asked to solve the jermal problem. In a meeting Habibie also asked the Minister of Defense and Minister of Human Resource to help him, because he already got pressure from international. KKSP Foundation, the Center for Child Information and Research. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 7 Jan 1999 jam 08:42:18 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
