Child Domestic Work in Indonesia: A preliminary situation analysis

Penulis/Peneliti: Jonathan Blagbrough

Tahun: 1995

The Republic of Indonesia is a large archipelago consisting of over 13,000 islands situated in south east Asia between the continent of Asia to the north and Australia to the south. Indonesia has a population currently approaching 200 million, making it the world‘s fourth most populous nation after China, India and the United States. Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim state (over 85 per cent of Indonesians are Muslim), although there are significant Christian, Hindu and Buddhist communities throughout the country.

During the past 25 years Indonesia has moved from being one of the poorest countries in the world, with an agriculture-based economy and a per capita income in 1967 of US$50 (about half that of India and Bangladesh) - to an increasingly deversified and export-oriented economy with a per capita income of US$754 in 1993.

According to UNDP‘s 1993 report on Indonesia, the overall adult literacy rate (defined as all those aged 15 years or above) was 91 per cent for males and 77 per cent for females (average = 84 per cent).
The reasons given by children and their parents for dropping out of school are firstly that the child‘s labour is needed to support the family, with other major factors including the hidden cost of the education (buying uniforms, books, etc), the location of the school and the lack of parental interest in the education of their children.

The aims of this study were, to undertake a preliminary analysis of the current situation of child domestic servants in Indonesia, identify information needs and prepare appropriate terms od reference, including producing practical recommendations for action.

To recap, the aims of this study were to undertake a preliminary analysis of the present situation of child domestic workers in Indonesia, identify information needs and to prepare appropriate terms od reference, including producing practical recommendations for action.
The methodology of the present study utilized Blacks‘s methodology for analysing the situation of child domestic workers for its overall framework.