UNGEI Case Studies in East Asia Towards Equal Opportunities for All Empowering Girls Through Partnerships in Education

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EMPOWERING GIRLS THROUGH

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL

PARTNERSHIPS IN EDUCATION

East Asia and Pacific Regional UNGEI

TOWARDS EQUAL

Case Studies in East Asia


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INDONESIA

Combating child domestic labourthrough education and training


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Contents

1 Context 64

1.1 Overview 64

1.2 Migration and child labour 64

1.3 Birth registration 64

1.4 Culture 64

1.5 Early marriage 65

1.6 Gender 66

1.7 Poverty 66

1.8 National economy and education 67

1.9 Enabling environment 68

2 Description of projects 692.1 Overview 69

2.2 Preventing and El iminat ing Exploi tat ive Child Domestic Work through Education 69and Training Karawang and Bekasi

2.2.1 Objectives 70

2.2.2 Centres of activities and innovative literacy strategies 70

2.2.3 Project beneficiaries 70

2.2.4 Funding 71

2.3 Regional Project to Combat Trafficking in Children for Labor 71and Sexual Exploitation Indramayu

2.3.1 Objectives 71

2.3.2 Centre of activities 722.3.3 Vocational training 73

2.3.4 Funding 73

3 Process 73

3.1 Dual strategy 73

3.2 Overview for Preventing and Eliminating Exploitative Child Domestic 73Work through Education and Training

3.3 Withdrawal programme Bekasi 73

3.3.1 Process outline 74

3.3.2 Partnerships 74

3.4 Anti-trafficking law Karawang 74



3.5 Radio Pelangi Karawang 76



3.6 Overview for Regional Project to Com bat Trafficking in Children for Labor 77and Sexual Exploitation

3.7 Teacher training Indramayu 77




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3.8 Catch-up education Indramayu 78

3.8.1 Process outline 783.8.2 Partnerships 79

3.9 Non-formal education Indramayu 79



3.10 Vocational training Indramayu 81



4 Outcomes and analysis 83

4.1 Overview 83

4.2 Outcomes and analysis in Bekasi and Kerawang 834.3 Outcomes and analysis in Indramayu 83

5 Future direction 84

5.1 Overview 84

5.2 Challenge in Bekasi and success in Karawang 84

5.3 Strong support in Indramayu 85

5.4 Replicating the success in Indramayu 85

Vignettes

1: Not this daughter 72

2: No rest, no play 80, 81

Endnotes 86


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72 TOWARDS EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL: EMPOWERING GIRLS THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS IN EDUCATION

Vignette 1: Not this daughter

Elinahs parents are too poor to pay for her school ing. Both Elinahsfather and mother only completed the third grade, and now theymake a scant living w orking the rice paddies. Their w ork requireslong hours of bending in the heat of the day planting seedlings byhand, cutting and bundling rice stalks and separating the rice grainsfrom the husks. Like many Amis village children, Elinah, 14, joinsher parents to plant and cultivate rice. But the difference betweenher and the other children is that she leaves at midday to participatein NFE offered at Sanggar Teratai, located in her vil lage.

I like open school because I can help my parents and still have aneducation, Elinah says. Aside from academic know ledge, Elinahsays that she knows more about child rights and determination. I know its against the rights of a child to have to work and not be

able to attend school at such a young age, she says. I pity the children who cannot go to school.

Elinahs father, Darsiman, is less worried about child rights and more concerned about what happens tohis daughter. Life treats educated girls di fferently from uneducated girls, Darsiman says. And Darsimanshould know : Cradling hi s youngest daughter, 21 months old Siti, he tells a sad story about another oneof his girls. A year earlier, he says that he allowed his oldest daughter Karim ah, 15 years, to falsify papersin order to w ork as a child dom estic. In transit to her destination, Karimah discovered that she w as beingtrafficked for prostituti on.

Though statistics are not concrete many stories have been told of girls w ho are recruited for domesticwork, but instead are forced into the comm ercial sex industry in t ransit. These girls are unaware that theyhave been tricked unti l they reach the brothel, or a holding area such as the one Karim ah found herself in.Traffickers threaten the gi rls and tell them that if they go to the authorit ies they wil l be pun ished becauseof their false documents.

Fortunately for Darsiman and his daughter, Karimah ran away from her captors and found a nearby

shelter for child domestic workers on Batam Island. Her father borrowed US$50 from a neighbour tobring her back home. She is now working as a legal child domestic worker in Saudi Arabia, but herparents havent heard from her in three months.

After he finishes his story, Darsiman hugs his youngest daughter tighter and nods that his oldestdaughters experience influenced his decision to make sure that Elinah gets an education. When he foundout about NFE offered at the centre, he was adamant that she participate. We realize that her educationis more im portant than any money she could gi ve us.

2.3 .2 Centre of activities

The impetus for education was established w ith the opening of Sanggar Teratai (centre of activities)in Amis village and Sanggar Kancil in Babakan Jaya village. The latter closed in May 2006 butoffered the same services as Sanggar Teratai, where at-risk children participated in recreation andsport, received counselling, and attended NFE and catch-up education classes. In total, 343 girlsyounger than 16 participated in a three-month catch-up education programme. Once girls completedthe classes, they were offered scholarships to continue studying at the local jun ior h igh school. Ifformal school was not feasible, children were able to attend non-formal junior high school at thecentre of activities. The District Office of Education supported YKAIs educational interventions byensuring that the classes are aligned w ith the standards set by the Ministry of Education, and providingscholarships and other types of assistance.

Teachers were engaged to combat drop-out and child trafficking through participation in teachertraining, which covered child trafficking and efforts to combat it; how to handle children at risk of

dropping out and those who have dropped out; contextual learning as an alternative learning method;school-based m anagement; and social relations between teachers and students. YKAI and the DistrictOffice of Education agree that the training m ade a difference in how teachers related to students. Before the t raining, teachers never visited parents of child ren who stopped attending classes,said H. Arifin, supervisor of education for Cikedung. Now they do.


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Vignette 2 : No rest, no play

At the tender age of 13 years, Suriah left the familiar sights of

meandering dir t roads and rice-paddies that enveloped her vill age.It is easy to imagine her closing her eyes on the way to Jakarta toprevent the memor ies of her hometown from spilling out in the formof tears. Suriah was determined to m ake a new hom e for herself ather employers house in the city. She was also determined to helpher family make ends meet. She couldnt know it at the time, butSuriahs dreams of econom ic determination w ould soon be drownedout by the immense workload and gruelling hours she would beforced to take on as a domestic.

Once she arrived in Jakarta, Suriah was confronted with a harshreality. Every day from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Suriah worked.She woke up before the sun rose and cooked breakfast for heremployers sleeping famil y of four. She then braved the infamous

Jakarta traffic to transport t he two small children to school. When she returned, a pile of dirty dishes waswaiting for her to scour. Next, she made the beds, scrubbed the toilets and floors, washed the clothes,and hung them to dry. Before fetching the children from school, she started dinner.

After dinner, her evening was a tiring echo of her morning routine. She washed the d ishes and m ade surethe kids were in bed on time. If the clothes were dry, she ironed and put them away. By late evening shehad just enough energy left to fall i nto bed for a few hours rest. I never got any days off, says Suriah,now 17 years. I was so tired and sad that I just gave up [2 m onths later] and called my brother to com eand get me.

According to ILO Convention No. 182, Suriah experienced some of the conditions that render child domesticlabour as one of the worst form s of child labour. Too often, these conditions include:

excessive working hours; no rest time or rest day;

no or limited remuneration; exposure to safety and health hazards;

abuse and exploi tation; bonded labour; or

trafficking.

Aam, a former social worker for Sanggar Puri, the no-longer operational centre of activities in Bekasi,says she has helped child domestics who were not only overworked like Suriah, but also but physicallyabused. There was once an employer w ho w as always angry w ith the child w orker, Aam says. Anythingdone by the girl was wrong in her eyes. She [the child] sim ply didnt understand. She had never workedbefore in her li fe and was asked (trafficked) to get a job in Bekasi by her uncle. The emp loyer regu larlylost her temper and kicked and hit the girl. When the girl came to the Sanggar, she couldnt concentrateon her studies; so Aam investigated her case. Eventually we [YKAI] gave money to the girl to returnhome.

3.9 .1 Process outline

Like the catch-up programm e, the NFE programme removed the tradit ional barriers to educationfor rural girls by offering scholarships and classes at flexible hours. Access to education wasincreased for all children who live too far from schools to w alk and have no alternative means oftransportation. NFE piggy-backed on the catch-up education initiative and provided a means ofmonitor ing catch-up education participants who had entered the form al education system. Partneringwith education officials ensured the legitim acy of the educational in tervention and assisted in themonitoring and evaluation of the learning achievements of at-risk children. The programme also:

Recruited and trained teachers.

Reviewed the teaching materials for gender-appropriate messages.

Reviewed the teaching methodo logies.

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Although Rokuyah w as never physically abused, she says that at 12years old she couldnt handle the workload given her. After fourmonths, she left Jakarta. But she still felt obligated to help her

parents, so she took a job as goat-herder in her village.

Herding goats is much more difficult than herding sheep as goatsdont have a herd mentality. Thus, if given a chance, each goattends to stray its own way to find better foliage or grass. That work[goat herder] was very had too, says Rukoyah, now 16 years. Iwas so tired because I had to w alk in the fields all day in the heat. Iworked from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. every day, but I didnt want tostart school because I wanted to help my parents.

Rukoyah says the vi llage government gave her parents informationabout NFE offered at Sanggar Teratai, the centre of activities in

Indramayu. Both she and Suriah enrolled in catch-up classes and now attend non-formal junior highschool classes. They no longer hold formal jobs, but have responsibilities they tend to at home during thedaytime.

I am happy that I can go to school now and have an opportunity for education, Rukoyah says. Suriahechoes her sentim ents, and says that if i t werent for NFE, she wouldnt be able to attend. I have 11cousins that I take care of, she says. Even if that werent the case, the school is too far from the vil lageand I dont have public transport.

Now during her broadcast on comm unity radio, Suriah urges parents to send their child to the centre foreducation. If the reason [child ren dont attend school] is money, it is no reason because there is nocharge for study at the Sanggar, she says. All children should attend school.

Collected information from schools regarding the monitor ing of catch-up education participantgirls who w ere not continu ing studies in junior and senior high schools.

Selected 160 at-risk girls and promoted long-term benefits of continuing education w ith theaim o f reaching success for 100.

Persuaded famil ies to agree to girls continued education and prom ised to cover educationexpenses with private-sector scholarships.

Organized m eetings w ith the schools offi cials and made necessary arrangements to re-enrolvulnerable girls in school.

Ensured scholarships to each of the children to continue their education.

Provided NFE classes according to national standards and professional recommendations

Mainstreamed NFE students into fo rmal school system and provided a gradual subsidy pol icyto parents who send their children to school.

3.9 .2 Partnerships

Collaboration with education officials led to the identification of at-risk girls and boys, and ensuredsome form of monitoring if the children re-enrolled in school. Fundraising with the private sectorprovided vital scholarship funding for the childrens continued access to education and lent credibil ityto the programme in the community.

3.10 Vocational training Indramayu

Training beyond junior high school can open the door to economic opportun ities other than domestic

labour or sex work. As such, representatives from IGTC asked YKAI to help identify children at riskof trafficking wi th an aptitude and will to learn. After the children were identified, it took up to threemonths for some parents to allow girl children to leave home. The social worker made severalhome visits to educate parents on why girls need skills and told parents that if they allowed the childto train she would be able to find a good job in a factory.

PART I: OVERCOMING GIRLS EXPLOITATION INDONESIA

Documents

UNGEI Case Studies in East Asia Towards Equal Opportunities for All Empowering Girls Through Partnerships in Education