JARAK Calls The Agriculture Sector Contributing Indonesian Children Workers Under 18 Years Of 58 Percent

JAKARTA - The NGO network for Child Worker Management (JARAK) revealed that the agricultural sector in Indonesia accounts for most child laborers who are not 18 years old as much as 58 percent.

This was conveyed by the Acting Executive Director of JARAK, Misran Lubis in a virtual discussion of the Ministry of Manpower (Kemnaker) on Tuesday, October 11.

"In general, what we are facing is that the distribution of child labor in Indonesia is quite massive in almost all sectors and also the area of areas that are not identified is quite a lot," he said, confiscated by Antara.

"In addition to the COVID-19 problem yesterday, there has been an increase, from 2018 it has almost dropped to around 800 thousand, in 2020 and 2021 it will increase again due to an increase in the poverty rate," continued Misran.

Misran explained, based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2021, there are 2.9 million children in the age range of 5-17 years in the world of work, with 1.05 million categorized as child labor.

He then highlighted other issues related to institutions that include child labor problems in various ministries or institutions and local governments that do not yet have better coordination.

Misran added, although many global instruments regulate child labor problems in the business world, there is still a corporate standard compliance gap in several industries.

"It is different between the desire to implement it, a multinational company with a local company, let alone then lowered it again to supply chains that exist at the household level, individuals or farmers," he said.