HOW well protected are Indonesian children from abuse? Official statistics on the subject are rare and sometimes of dubious reliability. However, the general picture appears to be one in which levels of neglect and abuse are frighteningly high.

The results of a random sample of 1,500 adolescents aged 10 to 18 years old in three provinces carried out by the University of Indonesia in 2009 showed that about 20 per cent had experienced some form of parental neglect. This ranged from failing to seek health care when able to do so, being left alone at home without adult supervision and being emotionally ignored by parents.

Even more worrying was the high number of adolescents who reported experiencing physical abuse. Violence at home was reported by 40 per cent of respondents in Aceh, 60 per cent in Papua and Central Java, and almost 80 per cent in East Nusa Tenggara.

Violence in the community, often perpetrated by friends or employers, was depressingly common. Eighty per cent of respondents said they had experienced this in Central Java, for example.

Academic researchers focusing on the situation in Yogyakarta, Surabaya and Jakarta have also reported high rates of violence and other forms of abuse in schools. Gang violence and bullying (reported by 67 per cent of respondents) is only part of the story. Research undertaken by Atma Jaya University in South Sulawesi, for example, found that 11 out of 276 children interviewed had their genitals touched by their teachers.

The most vulnerable are street children who do not have birth certificates. Such children, notes Sahabat Anak’s Ms Candice Kitingan, cannot get an identity card. This means they do not have access to medical or educational services. “And if someone kidnaps them, nobody even knows they’re missing. So it’s easy for these children to be trafficked or fall into slavery.” Sahabat Anak focuses on helping Jakarta’s thousands of street kids.

Perhaps the best thing that can be said about the situation is that both the government and the community in general are now more aware of these issues. Established in 1998, Jakarta’s National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak) monitors the problems facing the nation’s young people, although its limited resources and dependence upon government ministries for statistics sometimes restricts the usefulness of its annual reports. Social workers say that sexual abuse in particular is widely under-reported.

In more recent years, the media has also been paying more attention, particularly in cases where children have been charged and incarcerated over trivial offences.

Recent examples include that of a boy in Bali who was convicted of stealing a purse containing 1,000 rupiah (13 Singapore cents). Another was beaten up and then taken to court for stealing a pair of sandals from a policeman. Yet another in East Nusa Tenggara province spent almost three months in detention for allegedly stealing flowers. Judges from the local court acquitted the latter of all charges in mid-January.

And in a famous case several years ago, a group of shoeshine boys were arrested at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta airport and taken to court for playing a coin toss game police regarded as gambling.

Data from Komnas Anak show that 788 minors stood trial for offences ranging from petty theft to drug abuse and gambling, in the first semester of this year. Komnas Anak chairperson Arist Merdeka Sirait told the media last month that the juveniles were mostly victims of their environments, arguing that social problems such as poverty and drug addiction led them to commit the crimes.

“I have never before seen such a robust debate” about children’s rights, United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) child protection officer Karen Doll Manda told The Straits Times last month. Unicef, which focuses on institution building, recently released a report highlighting the high prevalence of child maltreatment in East Asia and the Pacific.

Last month, Parliament approved a law designed to address some of these issues. The Bill stipulates that minors aged from 14 to 18 can be incarcerated in detention centres only if they commit an offence which carries a penalty of more than seven years in jail. For the others, the law now permits officials to seek out of court settlements.

And for the first time, the law also requires children who are incarcerated to be housed in separate areas from adults.

That said, the problems of child abuse remain immense. Much remains to be done, both in terms of strengthening the policy environment and in providing the nation with suitably trained social workers.

The Central Statistics Agency plans to carry out a major survey in 2014 designed to get a better understanding of the nature and extent of the problem. Hopefully, its findings will lead to further improvements in the protection afforded to Indonesia’s children.

(C) Singapore Press Holdings Limited