LPSK Campaign To Stop The Practice Of Prostituted Children

JAKARTA - Coinciding with the commemoration of National Children's Day 2020, the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK) raised the issue of protecting Indonesian children. Where from 2016 to June 2020, there were 79 million Indonesian children who needed special protection.

"From 2016 to June 2020, there have been many applications for child protection that have been submitted to LPSK," said LPSK Deputy Chairman Edwin Partogi Pasaribu in his statement, Thursday, July 23.

Even as of June 2020, LPSK has received 926 applications for child protection from a number of provinces in Indonesia. Edwin explained that out of 926 requests, 482 of them were victims of sexual violence, 133 victims of trafficking in persons, 106 victims of sexual trafficking exploitation, and the rest came from various cases where children were victims.

On that occasion, LPSK highlighted the application for protection of child victims of sexual trafficking exploitation. An example is the incident where a French citizen allegedly took vulgar pictures of 305 girls.

Then the case of prostituted children (AYLA), based on where the AYLA crime occurred, DKI Jakarta was in the top place, followed by East Java and West Java. From the LPSK research, most of the AYLA did not complete 12 years of basic education, some even did not complete primary school (SD).

"In general, AYLA who want to work, get job information from friends, social media, relatives, and agents / recruiters. Initially they were promised to work as waiters, karaoke guides, shopkeepers and others with the promise of adequate income," said Edwin.

But in reality, he said, the children were exploited while working, being employed 10 hours to 16 hours per day, and serving around 10 guests. They are promised an income of IDR 1 million to IDR 20 million per month.

"It's far from the fire, some of them don't even get paid at all. They are also forced to take birth control pills or contraceptive drugs so that they can be exploited continuously without being obstructed by their menstrual cycle," he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chairperson of LPSK Livia Iskandar said that Indonesia already has a Child Protection Act (UU) and a Child Justice Law.

Even in 2016, the President issued a Government Regulation in Lieu of Law (Perppu) to respond to the increasing number of cases of sexual violence against children, by increasing the punishment to a maximum of 20 years, or life imprisonment, or the death penalty for perpetrators of sexual violence against children.

"Unfortunately, the President's attention to cases of sexual violence against children has not been accompanied by sufficient budget for the implementation of child protection. The problems that are often encountered are small budgets and human resources with insufficient competence," said Livia.

On that occasion, LPSK encouraged the government to optimize the campaign to prevent sexual violence against children and allocate an adequate budget for protecting children and women.

The government is also expected to promote cyber patrols to remove pornographic content and online prostitution, as well as support advocacy for the protection of children and women carried out by NGOs, mass organizations, academics, and create operational networks.

"It takes a strong political will from the local government to provide protection to children by allocating adequate budgets, qualifying competitive human resources, and building rehabilitation places for victims at least in every province, city and district," said Livia.