Executive Summary. Child Domestic Workers in Two Areas of South Jakarta: a Study for Awareness Raising

1/29/2007 12:00:00 AM

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Oleh: Dhevy Setya Wibawa; Laurike Moeliono

Submitted for GTZ Office Jakarta.

In cooperation with Rumpun Gema Perempuan

Tahun: 2002

Abstrak:
In 1956 Supplementary Slavery Convention the United defined five main categories of slavery, i.e. traditional slavery, debt bondage, serfdom, servile forms of marriage, and the exploitation of children for their labour (Blagbrough, 1995). However, we know that slavery practices still exist in this modern life, especially in big cities. One form of slavery is domestic workers phenomena. Scattered information about the many-fold problems and issues about domestic workers have been revalealed. Nevrtheless, we still have lack information about the magnitude of the phenomena that is need for further initiativ program development related to the issue.

In Indonesia, a domestic worker ussually does daily-household chores, including taking care of the children and pets. Domestic workers are employed to ease the workload of the members of a family, especially the wives (and the girl children). Since living cost increases highly, people tend to employ children who are considered as less demanding and lower-paid. On the other side, the easiest job children (girl) from rural areas with low attainment of education can do is domestic work. From the few qualitative studies that have been in Indonesia, we know that working as domestic workers will pull them out of school and prevent them to play with peer groups. The incidences of physical and sexual abuses are also indicated those studies.

In 1995, CSDS Atma Jaya Catholic University carried out a study on (child) domestic workers to provide a rough estimation of the magnitude of domestic workers. The study was also directed to seek information about demographic profile of the employers and the workers themselves. The results of the study revealed that the issue of child domestic workers "is not only a serious problem are, but also that it continues to be overlooked - in terms of public consciousness, in official statistics, in reports and studies of child labour, an in the lack of any kind of protective legislation".

With all th existing information about the magnitude and issues related to child domestic workers, this study is directed to provide a model for raising public awareness about the seriousness of child domestic workers issues.

Objectives:
The main objective of the study is to provide a holistic information regarding the magnitude and life condition of child domestic workers. Specifically, th study focused on: 1) Understanding the life condition and future aspirations of the Child Domestic Workers (CDW) or "Pembantu Rumah Tangga Anak" (PRTA; 2) The process of recruitment and employers social-economic background; 3) Establishing network with community leaders and employers to begin an awareness raising cmpaign for the benefit of the children (PRTA); 4) Estimation (the magnitude) of child domestic workers based on secondary data available.

Methodology:
This qualitative study is conducted in co-operation between the Center for Societal Development Studies (CSDS) with Gema Perempuan, an NGO working with domestic workers issues. The study is conducted in South Jakarta. The district Kalibata Tengah and Kemuning was two selected area chosen purposively based on the criteria that represent a middle-upper society (Kalibata) and a middle-lower society (Kemuning).

To collect in-depth information about life condition and future aspirations of child domestic workers, 4 focus group discussion with child domestic workers and 4 FGDs with employers were carried out separately. The process of FGDs was modified to assess inormation and aspiration participants as well to raise awareness of participants of human rights (including the Rights of the Child) issues. Awareness raising was done through games and discussions on some cases after each FGD with Child Domestic Workers as well employers at different sessions.