National Child Protection Commission: Urgent, the abolition of child domestic workers

Eneng was only 11 years old when she started working as a child domestic worker. Economic reasons had forced Eneng, the third of seven children in her family, to answer an offer from a friend in her village to be a domestic worker in Jakarta.

From one house to another, until now, Eneng has worked for several employers. At the age of 18, she still becomes a domestic worker at a house in Taman Cimanggu in the town of Bogor. Her employer, Erly (50) admitted that she had hired Eneng from her neighbor when the girl was 15 years old.

“She was still indeed very young, but Eneng had been experienced and submissive,” Erly said.

Erly gave Eneng Rp 600,000 a month for her first salary. Now, she earns Rp1 million. Eneng is also allowed to freely visit her hometown in the village of Cipatat, Cigudeg, twice a month. Erly admitted that she had once offered Eneng to go back to school, but she refused.

Siti Aisyah/Isa (22) and her younger sister Eva Noviansih (18) also experienced to be domestic workers during their childhood (under 18 years old). Isa has become a child domestic worker since she was 14 years old and worked for several employers. Her first salary as a child domestic worker in Bekasi in 2007 was Rp. 150,000.

Dreaming of earning a higher salary made Isa work for another employer. Besides cooking, washing, ironing and cleaning up, Isa also took care of her employer’s pet. Isa testified that she had been frequently abused, forcing her to flee to another employer. “I was often thrown with comb and swooshed with kerosene if doing some mistakes,” Isa said.

The stories of Eneng and Isa are only some examples amid the growing number of child domestic workers originating from Bogor Regency, particularly from Cigudeg, Leuwiliang and Jasinga, which are suspected to be the bowls of housemaids. At a housing complex in Cimanggu area in the town of Bogor, we can meet dozens of child domestic workers.

Their average age is between 14 and 18 years old. They work as domestic workers due to economic condition. Judging from the Bogor Regency area, which covers 40 districts, there may still be many child domestic workers.

Besides economic motive, the high number of child domestic workers is likely related to the low level of education. Aman Muslihat, head of the Elementary Education at the Bogor Regency Education Agency, admitted that the dropout rate in the three districts is alarming enough. The latest data released by the agency shows that the total dropout rate from the elementary school to senior high school levels reached 820 people.

“The data only recorded the number we had got in Bogor Regency. Probably, there are still many others because dropout children from the regency are also spread in the town of Bogor and other areas,” he said.

When being confirmed, Leuwiliang District Chief Chairuka Judhyanto admitted that he has been trying to brush aside assumptions that his district is the bowl of domestic workers, including child ones, by encouraging the residents of Leuwiliang, which population is about 150,000, to be care of education. He confirmed that compared to the era in 1990s, the number of child domestic workers has been declining.

In Cigudeg, community leader Cleric Mat Soleh admitted that his area is popularly known as the bowl of child domestic workers.

Considering the condition, the authorities of Bogor Regency, West Java, need to immediately protect under-age children from working as child domestic workers.

The ILO Convention Number 189, which is popularly known as the Convention on Domestic Workers, bans and eradicates some types of dangerous jobs done by children in households. Indonesia signed the Convention on Domestic Workers in 2011 but has not ratified it.

Aris Merdeka Sirait, chairman of the National Commission on Child Protection (Komnas PA) urged the Bogor Regency administration to immediately take concrete actions to eradicate child domestic workers. Lita Anggraini, national coordinator at the National Advocacy Network (Jala), shared a similar call. She stressed that the government, including the Bogor Regency administration, must have a map locating the whereabouts of child domestic workers.

“The objective is to provide empowerment, such as access to education, economy, skills, etc., in efforts to eradicate child domestic workers.

Lita also urged the government to immediately adopt the Law on Domestic Workers submitted by her organization, along with others, in 2004.

This article is an in-depth article on the elimination of child domestic workers by Ignatius Herjanjam of Suara Pembaruan Daily and published on 20 August 2015. The article is part of the ILO’s media fellowship programme on domestic workers and child domestic labour, jointly conducted in collaboration with the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Jakarta and eight selected leading, national mass media. The media fellowship programme was part of the campaign conducted by the ILO through its Promoting Decent Work for Domestic Workers to End Child Domestic Work (PROMOTE) Project. Funded by the United States Department of Labour (USDOL), PROMOTE Project aims at reducing child domestic workers significantly by building institutional capacities of partners to promote Decent Work for Domestic Workers (DWDW) effectively. The Project works to increase the knowledge, skills and expertise on reducing child domestic workers and promote DWDW.