Child Protection Task Force a Must, Say Activists

By Indah Setiawati
The Jakarta Post
March 26, 2013

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/03/26/child-protection-task-force-a-must-say-activists.html

The city administration will cooperate with a number of institutions to set up child protection task forces (Satgas PA) in neighborhood and community units to curb the rising number of child abuse cases.

Among the child right defenders are government-sanctioned body Indonesian Commission on Child Protection (KPAI) and the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak).

Komnas Anak chairman Arist Merdeka Sirait said that the Jakarta administration was the first province to respond to the call to set up a child protection system in subdistricts. He said he had spoken with Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo about the children protection system pilot project.

“We will launch a pilot project in three subdistricts in the coming weeks. The subdistricts are Kampung Tengah in Kramat Jati, Ciracas and Cakung, all in East Jakarta,” he told The Jakarta Post.

He said the locations were chosen as child abuse had often occurred in the densely populated municipality.

Arist said residents would outline a set of rules that would be used as a guide to prevent and respond to child abuse cases. They will later form a task force comprising community members, similarly to that of the family welfare movement (PKK), Karang Taruna youth club and mass praying groups.

“Communities such as Karang Taruna and PKK could be places for people to report child or female abuse cases. Neighbors will protect each other as they agree that domestic violence is no longer a private household problem,” he said.

Head of the task force, M. Ihsan of KPAI, said Satgas PA would train volunteers with the necessary skills and knowledge to protect children.

Child abuse cases, including those involving sexual abuse, have reached an alarming number over the past several years. Arist said that many people in neighborhoods where child abuse had occurred were not aware of how they could support the victims as there was no child protection system in place. In 2011, Komnas Anak recorded 2,509 cases of child abuse in the country, 52 percent of which involved sexual abuse. In 2012, the number of cases climbed to 2,637, 62 percent of which involved sexual abuse. The organization recorded 127 cases of child abuse in Greater Jakarta alone from January to the middle of March, 85 of which were sexual crimes. During the first quarter of last year, it recorded 72 sexual assaults.

“We want to emphasize that child protection is the responsibility of all sectors in society,” Seto Mulyadi, the head of board of patrons at Komnas Anak, told the Post on Monday.

Seto recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Satgas PA at community unit 12 in Cirendeu subdistrict in South Tangerang.

Meanwhile, Wien Ritola, the chairwoman of the city’s Community Service Center for Protection of Women and Children (P2TP2A), said she looked forward to cooperating with organizations to prevent overlapping systems.