ILO supports Indonesia’s initiative to promote mother and child welfare through childcare services

JAKARTA, Indonesia (ILO News) - The ILO in collaboration with the Ministry of Manpower conducted a series of tripartite consultative workshops regarding the Law No. 4/2024 on Mother and Child Welfare and the finalization of Draft Guideline on Facilities for Workers’ Welfare in Jakarta on 31 July, Karawang Regency of West Java from 9-10 July and Probolingo Regency of East Java from 17-18 July.

These workshops focused on the first priority of the Government of Indonesia as outlined in its Road Map on Care Economy which is the provision of affordable and accessible childcare services for woman workers. The objective of these workshops, therefore, aimed to provide good practices on regulations and policies on childcare services at the provincial level and to explore potential collaboration through the public-private partnerships, particularly small- and medium-sized enterprises.

The workshop presented various representatives of companies and organizations that have developed a childcare service to support workers, particularly women workers, with family responsibilities. One of the companies was PT Surabaya Autocomp Indonesia (PT SAI), a Japanese operating company that produces automotive wiring components.

PT SAI has established Tunas Cinta childcare for its female employees who previously had to leave their small children at their hometown and were only able to visit and meet them once or twice a week. “We decide to establish the childcare service through our social responsibility programme not only to make working mothers closed to their children, but also to improve not only the quality of workers’ lives but also their productivity,” said Frike Angga Kusuma, a representative from PT SAI.

© ILO

© ILO

Meanwhile, in terms of the development of policy and regulation, Head of Manpower Office of Karawang Regency, Rosmalia Dewi, SH, stated that considering Karawang Regency as one of the industrial regencies in the country, the Manpower Office of Karawang Regency fully supports the implementation of the Mother and Child Welfare Law and the establishment of facilities to ensure workers’ welfare, particularly in ensuring the availability of affordable, accessible quality childcare services.

“Karawang Regency is the biggest industrial area in Southeast Asia. To date, the regency has an approximately 1,762 factories, absorbing 30,758 workers. Therefore, the regency has a great potential to develop a collaborative public-private partnership by developing and strengthening relevant regulations,” she stated.

We hope that through these series of tripartite consultative workshops, together we can support the roles of workers with family responsibilities, particularly women workers, to be productive and to contribute to the national economic growth.

Early Dewi Nuriana, ILO’s Programme Coordinator for Care Economy

Responding to responses from relevant stakeholders from the three regencies, Early Dewi Nuriana, ILO’s Programme Coordinator for Care Economy, said that the main challenge faced by women workers working at industrial zone in urban, sub-urban and rural areas is the lack of access to quality childcare services. Women workers still struggle with a double burden to balance their work-life responsibility, resulting most women workers tend to leave their paid job to work on unpaid caring work.

“Therefore, there is an urgent need for the state to start investing in providing quality, affordable and accessible childcare services. We hope that through these series of tripartite consultative workshops, together we can support the roles of workers with family responsibilities, particularly women workers, to be productive and to contribute to the national economic growth by ensuring workers’ facilities, such as childcare services,” she concluded.