23 Indonesia’s population density in 2010 was
124 people per square kilometre. Among the provinces, the densest population was recorded
in Jakarta, which had 14,440 people per square kilometre. West Papua, meanwhile, had the least
dense population with only eight people per
Table 1.3: Distribution of population by major island, 1971–2010
Source:BPS–StatisticsIndonesia,2010,p.7–14 Sumatra
Java Jakarta
West Java Central Java
Yogyakarta East Java
Banten
Bali and Nusa Tenggara
Kalimantan Sulawesi
Maluku and Papua
TOTAL Indonesia’s
Population millions
1971
17.6 63.9
3.9 18.2
18.4 2.1
21.4 5.6
4.3 7.2
1.4 100.0
119.2
1990
20.4 60.2
4.6 19.8
16.0 1.6
18.2 5.3
5.1 7.0
2.0 100.0
178.6
2000
21.0 58.9
4.1 17.4
15.2 1.5
16.9 3.9
5.3 5.5
7.2 2.0
100.0 205.1
2010
21.3 57.5
4.0 18.1
13.6 1.5
15.8 4.5
5.5 5.8
7.3 2.6
100.0 237.6
1980
19.1 62.1
4.4 18.7
17.3 1.9
19.9 5.4
4.6 7.1
1.8 100.0
146.9
Figure 1.4: Numbers and proportions of population aged 0–17 years by province, 2010
Source:Preliminaryiguresfromthe2010PopulationCensus Note:Therankofprovincesfromlefttorightisbasedondescendingproportionofpopulationaged0–17yearsage
rangeisbasedondataavailability Numbers of children aged 0-17
years old Percentage of children from
provincial population 9,000,000
8,000,000 7,000,000
6,000,000 5,000,000
4,000,000 3,000,000
2,000,000 1,000,000
50 45
40 35
30 25
20 15
10 5
-
Number of Male Children Number of Female Children
Percentage of children from provincial population East Nusa T
enggara Maluku
W est Sulawesi
North Maluku Papua
Southeast Sulawesi W
est Papua North Sumatra
Riau
Central Sulawesi Gorontalo
Aceh W
est Sumatra W
est Kalimantan W
est Nusa T enggara
South Sulawesi Central Kalimantan
Bengkulu Jambi
South Sumatra Banten
East Kalimantan Lampung
W est Java
South Kalimantan Bangka Belitung Islands
Riau Islands North Sulawesi
Central Java Bali
East Java Jakarta
Y ogyakarta
square kilometre. More than half of Indonesia’s children also live in Java, and the provinces
with the largest numbers of children are West Java, East Java and Central Java. However,
the provinces with the largest proportions of children in their populations are located
in eastern Indonesia, including provinces in Maluku, Papua and Sulawesi, and especially the
province of East Nusa Tenggara Figure 1.4.
The proportion of children living in rural areas is higher than those living in urban areas,
although the proportion of children in urban areas is increasing. Based on data from the
2009 SUSENAS, it is estimated that around 42.7 million children 54 per cent of the total number
of children lived in rural areas, which was slightly larger than the proportion of the rural
population itself 52 per cent. The remaining 36.7 million children 46 per cent of the total
number of children lived in urban areas. Indeed, in line with recent urbanization trends, the
proportion of children in urban areas has steadily increased. In 1993, it was estimated that only
around 40 per cent of children lived in urban areas. In almost all provinces the numbers of
24
Table 1.5: Composition of Indonesian households by relationship to the head of household, 2009
No
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
9
Relationship to head of household
Head of household herhimself
Spouse Child
Sondaughter-in-law Grandchild
Parentparent-in-law Relatives
Domestic worker Others
Total
Children 18 years
0.08 0.04
83.91 0.09
12.77 0.00
2.69 0.20
0.21 100.00
Adults ≥18 years
38.61 30.91
19.39 3.59
0.53 3.07
3.13 0.41
0.35
100.00
Total
25.04 20.03
42.13 2.36
4.84 1.99
2.98 0.33
0.30
100.00
Age category of each age category
Source:Estimatesfrom2009SUSENASPanel
children in rural areas are larger than in urban areas. In addition to Jakarta – where there are
no rural areas – only the provinces of West Java, Banten and East Kalimantan have fewer children
living in rural areas than in urban areas.
Around 72.44 per cent of households in Indonesia are households with children, and
most of them care for more than one child Table 1.4. The remaining 27.56 per cent
30.20 per cent in urban areas; 25.80 per cent in rural areas of households do not include
children. Most households have between one and three children, although some have up to
seven or more. As in other parts of the world, urban households generally tend to have fewer
children than rural households.
Most children in households 83.91 per cent are the children of the head of the household Table
1.5. Meanwhile, 12.77 per cent are grandchildren and 2.69 per cent are other relatives of the
head of the household. These figures indicate the presence of extended family structures. It
is quite common in Indonesia for people who migrate to the cities to leave their children in the
village in the custody of their grandparents or other relatives, due to the high cost of living in
cities. On the other hand, children whose parents reside in remote areas often have to stay with
relatives in or closer to urban areas, in order to be closer to schools. This is commonly referred
to as menumpang. Interestingly, about 0.12 per cent of children under 18 years held the status
Table 1.4: Households by number of children, 2009
Number of children 18 years in household
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 or more Total
Urban
30.2 28.87
25.56 10.8
3.25 0.98
0.24 0.08
100
Rural
25.8 30.19
25.75 11.62
4.41 1.47
0.5 0.23
100
Total
27.56 29.67
25.68 11.29
3.95 1.27
0.4 0.18
100 Source:EstimatesfromSUSENASPanel,2009sub-sample
ofSUSENAS,covers67,174householdsand268,313 individuals
of household head or spouse, meaning that they were already married. Meanwhile, 0.20 per
cent of children in households were working as domestic workers or helpers.
For Indonesian families in general, children are regarded as valuable resources that will bring
good fortune. Although there is no nationwide survey to quantify the value Indonesian families
place on children, ethnicity and religion play a role. The 2000 Population Census BPS –
Statistics Indonesia, 2001 revealed that 97.14 per cent of Indonesians identified themselves
as followers of Abrahamic religions Muslims 88.22 per cent; Christians 8.92 per cent, while
the rest were followers of Asian religions Hindus 1.81 per cent; Buddhists 0.84 per cent;
other religions including Confucianism and indigenous religions 0.20 per cent. From the
perspective of ethnicity, more than 50 per cent of Indonesians are Javanese or Sundanese, while
those who identify as Malay, Maduranese, Batak, Minangkabau, Betawi, Buginese and Bantenese
each account for less than 5 per cent of the population, are other ethnicities make up less
than 2 per cent of the population Suryadinata, Arifin and Ananta, 2003. Theoretically, all of
these religions and ethnicities place a high value on children. For example, the Abrahamic
religions perceive children as heritage from the Almighty see for example Quran Surah
8:27–28; Psalm 127:3, and the ethnic majority of
25 Indonesians the Javanese view children as able
to bring herhis own fortune Albert et al., 2005.
5
Several GoI documents
6
refer to children as ‘gifts from God’ and their rights are consequently God
given. Children are considered to be the future of the nation as well as the future of the family.
However, Indonesian families usually grant children little independence. Indonesian culture
and society is very traditional, with strong and rigid family structures. Children are expected to
be respectful and obedient. They have limited roles in family decision-making although they are
expected to directly or indirectly contribute to the livelihood of the family International Bureau for
Children’s Rights, 2006, p. 30. When constrained by low income or lack of socio-political power, it
is possible that the potential value of children is not realized within households and communities,
making children in these situations more vulnerable than adult household members and
more vulnerable than their counterparts from more privileged backgrounds.
1.4 The political context: Democratization and
decentralization in Indonesia
In the past decade, Indonesia has undergone a vibrant, but relatively peaceful, democratization
and decentralization reform process that has influenced the country’s policymaking and
development processes, including those pertaining to children. Following the fall in 1998
of the stable but very centralized and autocratic New Order Government of 32 years, the 1945
Constitution that provides a basis for the rule of law and the political system in Indonesia was
amended four times between 1999 and 2002. Three important features of the amended version
of the 1945 Constitution are:
1 Formation of the basic institutional structure of the new democratic
decentralized government by adopting a more internally consistent presidential
system, including: direct election of the president; election of all members of
the national legislature, the People’s Representative Council
DewanPerwakilan Rakyat, DPR; establishment of an elected
upper house to represent regional interests from across Indonesia, the
Regional Representative Council Dewan PerwakilanDaerah, DPD; and creation of a
Constitutional Court Eric, Liddle and King, 2008. p. i, 8–9.
2 Inclusion of a key chapter containing the provision of the Universal Declaration on
Human Rights and the two human rights covenants, including Article 28B, clause
2, on the rights of children. This provides a very clear and strong foundation for the
promotion and protection of human rights, thus providing a basis for more elaborate
and extensive provisions on human rights set down under Law No. 391999
concerning Human Rights as well as in a number of laws on specific human rights
issues, including Law No. 232002 on Child Protection.
3 Far-reaching devolution of most government functions to districtcity
kabupatenkota governments, and special autonomy for the provinces of Aceh and
Papua.
Generally, analysts agree that the political transition process in Indonesia has been quite
successful in establishing the essential elements of democratic government. The country has
successfully held relatively peaceful and fair national, provincial and district legislative
elections in 1999, 2004 and 2009, including direct presidential elections in 2004 and 2009, and
many direct elections for provincial governors and district executive heads since 2005. An
assessment of democracy and governance conducted in 2010 concluded that of the five
key elements of democracy – consensus, inclusion, competition, rule of law and good
governance – Indonesia has been progressing well on the first three but lags behind in terms
of the latter two Eric, Liddle and King, 2008.
5 For example, a well known saying in Indonesia is “banyakanak,banyakrejeki” the more children you have, the more fortune you receive. 6 For example, the ‘Foreword’ of the Presidential Decree No. 872002 on the National Plan of Action for the Eradication of Commercial Sexual Exploitation
of Children, by the Minister for Women’s Empowerment.
26
7 The ‘Freedom in the World 2010’ survey contains reports on 194 countries and 14 related and disputed territories. The political rights and civil liberties categories contain numerical ratings between 1 and 7 for each country or territory, with 1 representing the most ‘free’ and 7 the least ‘free’. The status
designation of ‘free’, ‘partly free’, or ‘not free’, which is determined by the combination of the political rights and civil liberties ratings, indicates the gen- eral state of freedom in a country or territory. In 2010, Indonesia was granted a score of 2 in political rights and 3 in civil liberties, and thus received an
overall freedom rating of 2.5 and was assigned the status of ‘free’ country report available at http:www.freedomhouse.orgreportfreedom-world2010 indonesia, last accessed 19 June 2012.
8 During 2005–2006, women contested positions as the executive or deputy in 53 provinces, cities and regencies spread across the country. One woman was elected as governor in Banten, and another as deputy governor in Central Java. In six districts women were elected as district heads bupati, and in
11 other districts, women were elected as deputy heads Calavan et al., 2009. 9 The central government general allocation fund DAU, dana alokasi umum is a block grant to local governments forming the basis for payments for civil
servants and the general provision of services. The special autonomy budget allocation for Papua is 2 per cent of the total DAU pool and Aceh has also received the same amount beginning in 2008.
10 Similar to Law No. 221999, Law No. 322004 as clarified further under Government Regulation No. 382007 assigns district government the authority to cover all sectors except foreign policy, defense, security, monetary and fiscal policy, religion and ‘others’. However, the new law further elaborates the
term ‘others’ to include national development planning, fiscal distribution, state administration, national economic institutions, human resources, natural resource exploration, strategic technology, conservation and national standardization. Law No. 322004 also introduced direct elections of provincial
governors and district heads which were implemented for the first time in 2005 and reinstated provincial oversight functions with regard to district annual budget proposals through a review mechanism to investigate whether the proposed budgets are in accordance with the public interest and not in
conflict with higher level regulations.
The Indonesian democratic transition is also considered to be progressing in the right
direction towards democratic consolidation, at which point a reversal to authoritarian rule
would be impossible Supriadi, 2009, p. 15–16. Indonesia has become the only country in
Southeast Asia ranked as ‘free’ with regard to political rights and civil liberties by the ‘Freedom
in the World 2010’ survey Freedom House, 2010.
7
In addition, gender participation in local politics has been broadening.
8
National unity has been maintained, and the ethnic and religious
violence that blemished the early days of the so-called ‘Reformation’ era known as
Reformasi in Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi and Maluku has
subsided. The trend towards conflict resolution in recent years is likely to continue, despite the
persistence of low-intensity conflicts in Papua and the fragility of the peace that has been
achieved in Aceh Supriadi, 2009.
Alongside the democratization reforms, decentralization measures have fundamentally
altered the relations and power structures in Indonesian government, and have largely
placed issues pertaining to children and poverty in the hands of district government.
The implementation of Law No. 221999 on Regional Governance and Law No. 251999
on Fiscal Balance between Central and Regional Government marked the beginning of
Indonesia’s era of decentralization or regional autonomy. In addition, in response to the threat
of separatism based on perceived economic and political inequality, the provinces of Aceh and
Papua were granted ‘special autonomy’, by way of Law No. 182001 for Aceh and Law No.212001
for Papua. These regions were granted special autonomy budget allocations known as Dana
Otsus
9
and a substantially larger portion of revenue sharing. Four years after their initial
implementation, the decentralization laws were amended in an effort to clarify the structure of
governmental authority and functions, as well as to improve the local accountability system.
Law No. 221999 was replaced by Law No. 322004,
10
and Law No. 251999 was replaced by Law No. 332004. The new laws reaffirm the
main responsibilities of district government in terms of service delivery including: public
works, health, education and culture, agriculture, transportation, industry and trade, social welfare,
investment, environment, land management, cooperatives and small and medium enterprises,
and labour force development. However, the existing regulations do not yet provide clear
grounds for assigning specific functions to the district government, particularly because many
central government service departments have continued implementing programmes that had
already been devolved to the regions, such as health and education Calavan et al., 2009; World
Bank, 2007. Indeed the devolution of central government functions and the new system of
intergovernmental transfer of funds from central to regional levels, together with the elimination
of central government involvement in the election of district heads, caused the central
government to lose a large part of its control over regional development.
27 Although the newly democratized and
decentralized Indonesia formally acknowledges children’s rights, the implementation of relevant
policies and programmes faces the challenge of a more complex process involving not only
the central government’s executive institutions but also the increasingly important new players,
such as political parties, civil society media, NGOs and the general public and the sub-
national governments, particularly the district governments. On one hand, the involvement
of more stakeholders in public policymaking opens up a window of opportunity for rights-
based advocacy and a better system of ‘checks and balances’ that will support a more equitable
and inclusive type of development. On the other hand, most of the new players in the political
decision-making process still suffer from limited capacity. The following passages highlight the
challenges facing the political parties, elements of civil society, and the district governments in
Indonesia.
The number of political parties in Indonesia has been increasing and they have become
increasingly important players in the shaping of public policy. More than 48 political parties – a
sharp increase from only three parties formerly legalized during the New Order Government
– participated in the first democratic election in 1999, during the
Reformasi era. In 2004, 24 political parties participated in the general
election and this number increased to 34 in the 2009 elections. However, the fact that only four
parties obtained more than 10 per cent of the vote during the 1999 general election, and only
three parties achieved this during the 2004 and 2009 elections, reflects the fact that real political
power is still in the hands of a few political elites. Political parties are often criticized for lacking
internal democracy and accountability, and for being plagued by widespread corruption Eric,
Liddle and King, 2008, and also for remaining very centralist, and having a tendency to
operate according to the political elite’s own narrow interests. To overcome this problem,
in the 2009 election an open list system based on the popular vote was introduced for the
first time.
11
This alteration compounded by the lessons learnt from the direct election of the
president, provincial governors and district chief executives, has potentially caused party leaders
and legislative members to be more responsive to the demands of their constituents and civil
society groups in particular. Thus, while internal party factors still determine stances on some
issues, ongoing developments are providing for a more participatory and responsive political
process.
In addition, civil society groups, including the media, universities and organizations such
as NGOs, unions, charitable foundations and religious and cultural groups, have become more
important players in development, providing checks and balances to the government and
working alongside it to bring about change. They have also created a link between political
parties and the masses Forum for Democratic Reform, 2000, pp. 7–8.
12
Freedom House’s ‘Freedom of the Press in 2010’ survey ranked the
Indonesian media as ‘partly free’.
13
Currently, the Indonesian public has access to a wide
variety of information delivered via numerous types of communication media, including radio,
television, newspapers and magazines. In addition, it is estimated that in 2009 around 30
million people 8.7 per cent of the population had access to the Internet without substantial
government restrictions; although use of the Internet as a news source outside of major cities
is restricted by the lack of high-speed Internet infrastructure Freedom House, 2010. On the
supply side, however, the media has been
11 The ‘open list with popular vote’ system was introduced following revision of the Electoral Law No. 102008, Article 214. It was done to make the process of seat allocation fairer. The open list system provides the voter with a choice in that it contains the names of candidates as well as parties, making it
compulsory for the voter to choose either a candidate or a political party or a combination of both, failing which the vote will be regarded as invalid Supriadi, 2009, p. 8.
12 For example, it was an NGO coalition collaborating with the media that, during an early phase of the transition period, mobilized public support for a constitutional amendment for the direct election of the president, and was successful in asserting this idea even though it was against the interests of the
major ruling political parties Eric, Liddle and King, 2008. 13 The ‘Freedom of the Press 2010’ survey covers 196 countries and territories. Based on 23 questions that assess the degree a country permits the free
flow of news and information, countries are given a total score from 0 best to 100 worst. Each country is then classified as ‘free’ if it has a score of 0–30, ‘partly free’ if the score is 31–60, and ‘not free’ if the score is 61–100. In 2010, Indonesia had a total score of 52 legal environment – 18; political
environment – 19; economic environment – 15. Available at http:www.freedomhouse.orgtemplate.cfm?page=251year=2010country=7841 last accessed 8 June 2012
