Child Poverty
The Central Statistics Agency announced that the number of poor people in Indonesia in March 2017 reached 27.77 million (10.64 percent), increasing by 6,900 compared with the condition in September 2016, which was 27.76 million (10.70 percent). Of the nearly 28 million poor people in March 2017, as much as 40.22 percent (11.26 million people) were children.
The decline in the percentage of poor people in 2017 is less qualified. Aside from the fact that the absolute number of the poor is growing, the Poverty Depth Index and Poverty Severity Index also increases. The Poverty Depth Index increases from 1.74 to 1.83, illustrating the per capita expenditure conditions of people grouped in the poor category to be farther below the poverty line. Similarly, the Poverty Severity Index also increases from 0.44. to 0.48. This means that the gap among the poor is getting wider.
If it is put in analogy with the pattern of the movement of the number and percentage of the total poor, roughly the number and percentage of poor children in 2017 is not too different from the condition in March 2016. That means the percentage of the condition of poor children in March 2017 will not be far from about 40 percent of the total poor.
Multidimensional
Child poverty is a multidimensional problem because many factors cause children to become poor. The condition of the household where a child lives is the main determinant of child poverty, both viewed from the monetary and non monetary approaches. Characteristics which affects the poverty of children includes, among others, the gender and the highest education of household heads, as well as the number of household members. Studies show that poor children are more commonly found in households headed by women, the number of household members more than seven, and household heads with low education.
The Geneva Declaration on the Rights of Children in 1924 states that children should be provided with the necessary means for their growth. Moreover, children should also be protected, cared for, and treated in line with their needs. The Declaration of the Rights of Children in November 1959 mentions the principles concerning the rights of the children which have to be fulfilled.
Those principles include, among other things, that children are entitled to special protection, social security and education , as well as that children should be protected from forms of exploitation and discrimination. The Declaration of the Rights of Children becomes the basis of the Convention on the Rights of Children approved by the UN General Assembly on November 20, 1989.
A monetary poor child is aged 0-17 years who lives in a poor household, namely a household with an average per capita expenditure per month under the poverty line. The child\'s monetary poverty is calculated by using the same method for the calculation of the population poverty in general. If the average of the monthly per capita expenditure of a household is below the poverty line, then all household members are poor. If in the household there are children aged 0-17 years, then the children are categorized as poor children.
The United Nations Children\'s Fund (UNICEF) develops a Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis ( MODA), a comprehensive measure of deprivation of the basic rights of children or the non-fulfillment of the basic rights of children in a multidimensional manner. MODA adopts the holistic definition of child welfare, emphasizes the fulfillment of access to the various needs of goods and services that are essential for the survival and development of children.
In the concept built by UNICEF, children who are deprived are children who live in poverty so that they are deprived of their material, spiritual and emotional rights in meeting the need for survival and growth, are unable to achieve their potential or participate fully and equally within the social sphere.
MODA distinguishes the concept of deprivation of basic rights for children aged 0-4 years and children aged 5-17 years. For children aged 0-4 years, the basic rights of a child is deprived if the child is not breastfed until the age of 23 months, not getting balanced nutrition, not getting DPT immunization, and his birth is not assisted by skilled health personnel.
Moreover, children in the age group of 0-4 years are also considered to be deprived of their basic rights if they do not have access to a quality water source, far away from a water resource, have no access to quality sanitation, live in dwellings with too narrow quarters, and roofs and floors which are inappropriate, and children are subjected to domestic violence.
Meanwhile, for children aged 5-17 years, the basic rights of children is deprived if they do not attend compulsory education, do not have access to information retrieval facilities, do not have access to quality water, live in dwellings with too narrow space, floors and roots which are not feasible, and are treated in violence in the household.
Indicators of deprived basic rights
In Indonesia the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in cooperation with UNICEF make adjustments to the indicators in identifying children who are deprived of their basic rights. Adjustments are commonly done to follow the social condition of the society and the availability of data in a country. BPS and UNICEF manage to build indicators which illustrate the non-fulfillment of children\'s rights.
A child is considered to be unable to get their basic rights if the floors of their dwellings per capita is less than 7.3 square meters, have no proper sanitation, do not have access to drinking water source, the household cooks using natural fuels (firewood, charcoal, etc.), are not given exclusive breastfeeding or supplementary food, calorie consumption is less than the Minimum Dietary Energy Requirement (MDER), the proportion of fat being consumed is more than 35 percent, are not attending school in line with age, have no birth certificates, become child laborers, and used to be or are married.
More detailed results on the indicators of child poverty and deprivation of the basic rights of children -- which in 2015 amounted to 83.99 million -- will soon be released in late July 2017.
As an initial description, in 2015, as many as 7.79 percent of children were born with the help of midwives or paraji. Cases like this are not necessarily caused by the lack of access to trained health personnel or health facilities. For some areas, births are not helped by trained health personnel and not in health facilities because they driven by beliefs and customs. This suggests that education and socialization of safe childbirth processes is still a homework for related ministries or agencies. Aside from that, embracing traditional birth attendants and their generation and making them trained health personnel may become an alternative.
As many as 95.04 percent of babies under two years (baduta) are ever breastfed. However, the average length of breastfeeding is only 4.03 months and the average breastfeeding with complementary food is 6.23 months. If they are combined -- again roughly -- the average breastfeeding on baduta is still far from 23 months. this issue should get particular attention because the development of children at that age greatly affects the physical endurance of adulthood and the development of a child\'s brain.
A total of 1.53 percent of girls aged 10-17 years have a married status and 0.11 percent with divorced status. Actually Law No. 35 of 2014 on Child Protection states that parents are obliged and responsible for preventing the occurrence of marriage at the child age. This law implies the marriage age is at least 18 years. Again it is another homework for the related responsible institutions to do a more vigorous education on parents who are the main filter to prevent child marriage.
It is also important to immediately follow up, in 2015, as many as 5.99 percent of 36.8 million people aged 10-17 years in Indonesia were listed as child laborers. What was more worrying was that about 204,530 were still aged 10-12 years and 356,490 were 13-14 years.
By looking at the composition of the age of almost half of poor children, the government and all related parties should provide more priority to poor households which have members with child age in the poverty reduction programs.
Furthermore, policies to eradicate child poverty should be formulated more comprehensively, systematically, and inclusively. Policies related to child poverty reduction should not only focus on meeting the basic needs, but also must be matched with the fulfillment of various aspects, especially the fulfillment of the non-monetary rights of children.
Finally, the analysis of BPS and UNICEF only touches children in the households. Further researches on the issue of child poverty living outside the households, such as street children, children living in orphanages, and others is urgently needed. May the commemoration of the National Children\'s Day 2017 be able to encourage the government and all parties to increasingly pay attention to the condition of poor children and start preparing policies with more proper target.
ISWADI
Head of Sub-directorate of Statistical Analysis, BPS