Letting child labourers know their rights

13 June 2008

Marking World Day against Child Labour on 12th June CARE chatted to the children, who live in Indonesia, and explained that as they are working they have lost some of their legal rights.

"I actually do not want to work but I must help my parents. I start working at six in the morning until five in the afternoon, and am only given five minutes to take a break," said Santi, 13, who works to collect swallow's nests in Jakarta.

One of the impacts of poverty is that the rights of children are being neglected. CARE, through its project, works to recover the rights of the children that were neglected, particularly for those who are working as domestic child labourers. The project conducts recovery efforts using two approaches. First, by doing rehabilitation and withdrawing the child from their work if exploitation has occurred. Second, by establishing advocacy efforts to prevent exploitation and improve the working conditions of the child labourer.

"We have to build information systems for child protection together with the local NGOs and the Police department, while working closely with the Government bodies to recover the neglected rights of the children," added Pietra Widiadi, Technical Program Leader of CARE in Indonesia.

The children developed recommendations that will be used as a reference to the Indonesian House of Representatives to protect child labourers and to eliminate the worst forms of child labour. This recommendation was presented to the Commission by thirty children, supported by CARE, the National Commission for the Protection of Children, and five local NGOs.