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Surakarta reaches out to street children

An official says that data verification problems are one factor hindering implementation of a program aimed at lifting street children in Surakarta, Central Java, out of poverty.

Surakarta, also known as Solo, did not have comprehensive information on the progress of an identification-and-training program aimed at street children launched in 2010.

Agus Hastanto, the head of the Surakarta Social Affairs and Transmigration Agency’s social division, said that officials could not solely rely on electronic data collection to help street children.

“It requires door-to-door identification,” Agus told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Agus said that the administration had had difficulties in identifying who could accurately be defined as “street children”.

Incorrect identification might lead to poorly targeted training and aid programs, he said.

“This will further hamper the handling of street children.”

The program depended on the participation of the parents of street children, especially their mothers, who were asked to complete forms for their children so that officials could best determine which training programs were appropriate for the children.

Target children and their mothers are offered training under the program, after which each mother-and-child pair is given up to Rp 1.25 million (US$136.25) in seed money to start a business.

In practice, however, mothers used the forms to submit requests for needed items such as rice cookers, microwave ovens or washing machines, Agus said.

To speed identification, the administration was cooperating with NGOs such as the Family Welfare Consultation Institution (LK3), which verified the information about the street children at their homes.

LK3 chairman Suparno said that his workers were focusing on identifying children working as beggars or street musicians.

One problem, according to Suparno, was that the children applying for the program were not poor.

“Once we found a street musician who was actually a student seeking extra money to buy a cell phone,” Suparno said.

He added that such children were likely to return to their daily lives after raising the money needed to buy a cell phone and did not need the training program.

Most genuine street children, however, could not stay in their programs until their completion.

“It’s very difficult to make them stay. They will keep on going back to the street,” Suparno said, adding that LK3 so far had identified some 80 street children in Surakarta.

To keep street children in the program, LK3 has placed street children under its care at kiosks or workshops near their previous hangout sites to prevent them from getting bored easily.

“What is also important is having a check on them directly regarding why they went to the street in the first place,” he said.