General policies and approaches to child protection

142 Source:฀Details฀of฀National฀Revenue฀and฀Expenditure฀Budgets฀APBN,฀2006–2010฀ Table 5.2: Budget for population related programmes and departments, 2006–2010 in million IDR Programme and Department Programme for consistency in population policies Programme for demographic data collection Directorate General of Population and Civil Registration 2006 10,000 27,771 61,213 2007 9,545 235,520 290,035 2008 9,111 255,955 301,065 2009 6,752 124,134 168,686 2010 6,752 494,134 541,033 had been prioritized. Despite a decline in the overall budget of the Population and Civil Registration Office, the budget of the population administration management programme Program฀Penataan฀Administrasi฀Kependudukan – which covered birth certificates – had increased. In 2008 the budget of this programme was IDR 643 million and in 2010 it increased to IDR 793 million, of which 3 per cent was used for the dissemination of the programme’s strategic plan at the district and village level and 4 per cent was used to make an inventory of all children aged five years who possessed birth certificates, which was done by distributing birth reporting forms F2-01. 5

5.2.3 Outcomes regarding birth registration

Data from the National Socio-Economic Survey SUSENAS revealed an increasing trend in birth registration among under-fives, but the current growth and achievement rates remain too low to achieve universal coverage by 2011. In 2000, it was estimated that around 40 per cent of under-fives already had birth certificates, and the proportion had increased to 48.8 per cent in 2009; thus it had increased on average by 2.75 per cent annually. The estimates derived from the 2007 and 2009 SUSENAS see Figure 5.1 show an acceleration of birth certificate possession so that deprivation of the right to have a birth certificates had declined by an annual average of around 6 per cent. Still, around 52.3 per cent of under-fives did not have birth certificates in 2009. Using a different definition of birth registration, an estimate based on the 2007 IDHS Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey showed that around 53.4 per cent of under-fives were already registered. The IDHS definition of registration includes not only the official birth certificate but also a letter from the hospital and a birth report letter from the village administration UNICEF, 2011. In spite of the good progress, there were significant disparities in the proportions of under-fives possessing birth certificates depending on ruralurban location, household wealth quintile and province. The proportion of children in rural areas who did not have birth certificates was higher than those in urban areas. In 2009, 36.3 per cent of children in urban areas had no birth certificate whereas in rural areas that proportion was almost double. Based on household wealth quintile, the under-fives from the poorest quintile had the lowest proportion of birth certificate ownership highest rate of deprivation. In 2009, 70.1 per cent of the poorest children had no birth certificate compared to just 23.5 per cent of the richest under-fives. This indicates that lack of a birth certificate was still a significant problem among poor children. The performance across provinces also varies greatly. In 2009, the under-fives, both girls and boys, in the province of North Sumatra were the most deprived with around 80 per cent lacking birth certificates, compared to just 12 per cent of girls and 11 per cent of boys of this age group in Yogyakarta Figure 5.2. Economic factors represent the main hindrance to progress in the provision of birth certificates. According to IDHS data Figure 5.3, the main reason for not registering a child’s birth is because it is considered too expensive. The free birth registration promoted by the central government has not entirely addressed the issue of cost. In fact, some districts still charge for birth 5 Birth reporting forms Form F2-01 are provided in villages for reporting the births of citizens of Indonesia. 143 Figure 5.1: Children under age five deprived of the right to have a birth certificate, by wealth quintile and urbanrural location, 2007 and 2010 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 Quintile 1 Quintile 2 Quintile 3 Quintile 4 Quintile 5 Urban Rural Indonesia 78.23 Per cent 66.15 57.1 43.61 27.75 42.14 71.46 59.49 70.14 61.51 51.28 38.17 23.51 36.3 66.17 52.26 2007 2010 Source:฀2007฀and฀2009฀National฀Socio-Economic฀Survey฀SUSENAS฀Core฀and฀Panel Figure 5.2: Children under age five without birth certificates by province, 2009 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 Per cent Girls Boys Source:฀Estimated฀using฀data฀from฀the฀2009฀SUSENAS North Sumatra W est Nusa T enggara East Nusa T enggara Maluku North Maluku Gorontalo Southeast Sulawesi W est Sulawesi W est Sumatra Central Sulawesi W est Papua Riau Central Kalimantan South Sumatra South Sulawesi W est Kalimantan Papua Lampung Aceh North Sulawesi Banten South Kalimantan W est Java Bali Jambi Bengkulu East Java Bangka Belitung East Kalimantan Central Java Riau Islands Jakarta Y ogyakarta registration. Besides the fee for birth registration and birth certificates, parents also face indirect costs, including transportation to a registration office. The issue of cost is the most commonly mentioned problem at all levels of household wealth. The second and third most common reasons are related to a lack of information, as many parents reported not knowing that they had to register the birth or where they should go to register. Similarly, the qualitative case studies also revealed that low birth registration is related to economic issues. In North Jakarta, most of the poor could not afford the cost of a birth certificate. In both study precincts, parents still incurred some cost when applying for a birth certificate. In East Sumba, since 2006 there have been regulations to ensure that birth certificates for all children up to age 17 years were free of charge until the end of 2010. However, the high cost of transport to the sub-district capital to apply for the certificate was still prohibitive for many. In addition, many also faced the cost of obtaining other documents required for the application, including copies of the parents’ 144 Figure 5.3: Reasons for not registering birth by wealth quintile and total, 2007 40 30 20 10 Cost too much Too far Did not know child has to be registered Late, did not want to pay fine Did not know where to register Source:฀Indonesia฀Demographic฀and฀Health฀Survey฀IDHS,฀2007 26.4 30.1 25.8 23.9 12 25.9 11.2 8.1 5.6 5.8 4 8.2 17.8 12.7 7.3 6.2 4.6 12.2 1.7 2.3 3.4 3.1 4.8 2.5 12.6 7.2 6.6 4 2.8 8.4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Total marriage certificate and identity cards, a certificate from the hospital or birthing facility, and the family card. Most poor families do not have a complete set of identification and other documentation, as these documents must be paid for and they may have not previously been viewed as necessary. As a final cost, applicants often have to pay a fee to people who assist them in the registration process. In addition to economic barriers, a lack of public awareness about the importance of birth registration is another cause for the low proportion of children possessing birth certificates in some regions. Most people in North Jakarta only realize the importance of a birth certificate when enrolling their children in school, since this is a registration requirement, especially at state schools. In East Sumba, there were obvious differences in the rates of birth certificate possession between the regions that had been targeted by awareness-raising campaigns on this subject and those that had not. This also demonstrates the effectiveness of awareness-raising campaigns. Similar to North Jakarta, people in East Sumba also realized the importance of possessing a birth certificate in relation to enrolling their children at school, especially at the senior secondary level. 6 Being born outside of marriage, or outside of a legally registered marriage, also results in children being deprived of a birth certificate, since possession of a marriage certificate is generally required for birth registration. Based on the study results in North Jakarta, a child who was born outside of marriage could have a birth certificate that did not include the name of the father, but unfortunately, this policy is not widely known by the people. Generally only civil registration personnel at the district level know about this policy, while most community and precinct kelurahan officials do not. Meanwhile in East Sumba, in the case of children born outside of marriage, people are generally ashamed to apply for a ‘single parent’ birth certificate, although in East Sumba people were generally aware of the policy allowing a birth certificate without the father’s name. Moreover, in East Sumba, marriage ceremonies are often carried out according to custom only, without any official registration procedure. Nevertheless, the culture allows a man to have two or three wives and usually the second and third marriages are only done according to customs thus many marriages lack an official certificate which in turn has an implication on to the children’s legal status. These issues indicate that the system of decentralization in Indonesia is fraught with 6 In the study area of East Sumba, many schools do not require a birth certificate as a requirement for school enrolment, especially at the elementary and junior secondary school levels. 145 challenges for the strategic plan for all births to be registered by 2011. The MoHA extended the birth registration service dispensation policy aimed at accelerating the achievement of the national strategic plan’s target i.e., all children in Indonesia are to be registered by 2011. 7 With reference to the Letter of the Minister of Home Affairs No. 472.112945SJ, the dispensation period which expired in December 2010 was extended until the end of December 2011. However, the implementation of this policy is fully assigned to the Offices of Population and Civil Registration at the district level, such that every district might implement the policy using different procedures. Indeed, not all local governments have implemented free birth registration since some still regard it as a source of income.

5.2.4 Recommendations

Although access to birth registration has increased, many children in Indonesia still do not have birth certificates resulting in a high degree of disparity across regions and across different levels of household wealth. The government has issued many regulations and programmes to address this but problems related to supply and access continues to arise. On the supply side, the government should: 1. Bring the service closer to those who are not accessing registration by: a. Moving the service point to the closest possible location, or subsidizing the transport and administrative costs of accessing birth registration; b. Ensuring that birth attendants and midwives register the births they attend, including home deliveries the government should also allocate some funds for operational costs, so that birth attendants will not be burdened by the cost or pass these costs on to the parents; andor c. Ensuring that civil registration agencies collect birth registration forms from hospitals on a daily basis. 2. Empower midwives and traditional birth attendants to help parents with the birth registration process by filling in the registration forms and delivering them to the closest civil registration office. 3. Subsidize the cost of birth registration and issue birth certificates free of charge. 4. Review the law and regulations to remove discriminatory practices against children born outside of marriage and outside of legal marriage. 5. Extend the time requirement of 60 days post- birth to register the child’s birth. On the demand side, the government needs to disseminate information to the public, especially to poor communities, about the importance of birth registration.

5.3 Working children and child labour

8

5.3.1 Regulatory framework, policies and programmes

After ratifying ILO Convention No. 138 on the minimum age for admission to employment through Law No. 201999 and ILO Convention No. 182 on the worst forms of child labour WFCL through Law No. 12000, the GoI has continuously made efforts to reduce child labour, especially the WFCL and child trafficking. Several laws have been issued to provide a legal basis for this endeavour, including: Law No. 232002 regarding Child Protection, Law No. 232004 regarding Domestic Violence, and Law No. 212007 regarding the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Trafficking. In addition, in 2006, ILO’s Global Report on Child Labour called for a global united effort to eradicate the WFCL by 2016. A consensus was reached among ASEAN governments in mid- 2009 to support this agenda, which was linked to achieving the main MDG target of reducing extreme poverty. 7 During the dispensation time, children exceed the age limit are still allowed to be registered their birth through office of population and civil registration with free of charge 8 Although trafficking and some activities of children living or working on the street can be considered as among the worst forms of child labour, these issues are not discussed in this section but later in the chapter. Child trafficking will be discussed in section 5.4 and children living or working on the street in section 5.5.