GOVERNMENT TARGETS TO FREE INDONESIA OF CHILD LABOR BY 2022

by Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, June 14 (Antara) - The Indonesian government is making all-out efforts, through a roadmap program, to free the country of child workers, which currently reach over 1.6 million, by 2022.          In order to achieve the target based on the roadmap, the Manpower Ministry has developed synergy with various parties, including regional governments and societal organizations, and launched a campaign to promote the free child worker program.          The program was also launched as part of the commemoration of the National Month Against Child Labor and World Day Against Child Labor on June 12. It involves the business community and society in which all stakeholders need to play a role and actively engage to free children from labor and also provide protection to them to uphold their rights and dignity in order to live, grow, develop, and participate optimally.          "We involve not only the central government but also regional administrations, businesses, and societal organizations," Maruli Hasoloan, the acting director general of Guidance and Supervision on Employment, Occupational Safety, and Health, had stated in Jakarta on Thursday (June 8).

GOVERNMENT WITHDRAWING CHILD WORKERS

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Sept 30 (Antara) - Very often, fighting poverty is a life long struggle for a poor family in any of the least developed countries or even in a developing country, and that includes Indonesia.         Many families have to work hard to make both ends meet. Children in such families are often forced to work to help parents eke out a living. However, the International Labor Organization (ILO) has set some clear norms about the age at which a child can enter the world of work.          Indonesia has set itself the target of eradicating child labor by 2022 but is that a dream? It depends on the level of poverty in the country. If families do economically better, it will ensure that parents no more force their children to become laborers.          In 2008, the government launched a program to withdraw child laborers from work field, yet the target to make Indonesia free of child workers is still far away.         After all, data in 2015 showed that 28.59 million people in the country were poor, accounting for about 11.22 percent of the population. This means a high instance of child workers from poor families.

RI PULLING OUT CHILD WORKERS, SENDING THEM TO SCHOOL

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, June 5 (Antara) - The Indonesian government is launching an intensive program to withdraw child workers from their workplaces and send them to school in an effort to free the country from child laborers in 2022.          The government carries out the child laborer withdrawal through its Child Labor Elimination Program (PPA) in support of its Family Empowerment Scheme (PKH).        "The government is launching a program to withdraw child workers from their workplaces and send them to schools so that they would not be trapped in any worst forms of child labor,"  Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said over the weekend.         He said the government was resolved to carry out the program intensively so that Indonesia would be freed from child workers in 2022.        "The government's commitment is reflected in its ratification of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions No. 138 on Minimum Age for Admission to Employment and No. 182 On The Worst Forms of Child Labour," the minister said.         The government has already ratified the convention through Presidential Regulation No. 59/2002 on withdrawal of child laborers, which instructed provincial and regional administration to take an active part in the national program.