The Role of Family Welfare Program Activity to Accelerate
Surakarta as Child Friendly City
Siany Indria Liestyasari and Atik Catur Budiati
Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta, Indonesia
Keywords: Child Friendly City, Family Welfare Program.
Abstract: This article would like to see how one of the grassroots government-level government programs that women
follow, the PKK (family welfare program), is used to institutionalize the principle of children's rights
through various activities that all lead to behavioral habituation to lead to responsive behavior of children's
rights. During this time, PKK functioned only as a collection of activities and a neighborhood lottery of
mothers. Activities such as a neighborhood lottery, games, mothers' creations could make PKK as an
effective socialization for child protection issues. Child care activities that are still closely related to
women's position as mothers make PKK activities as an opportunity to accelerate the protection of children
through community participation.
1 INTRODUCTION
The issue of children emerging in society clearly
illustrates that there should be a policy that
specifically protects children. The frequent cases of
violence, drop-out cases, child labor, child
exploitation and so on, constitute a handful of the
many child issues that end in the abandonment of
children's rights and protection. Therefore, the
government has the idea to develop a program called
Child Friendly City (KLA). To accelerate the
establishment of Child Friendly City/District
throughout Indonesia, the Ministry of Women's
Empowerment and Child Protection issues four State
Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child
Protection Regulations. These policies are a national
policy that requires the development of programs in
all districts / municipalities in Indonesia to
accelerate efforts to protect and fulfill the rights of
children.
However, field implementation of KLA
development process is not easy. The results of
Agustinawati (2012) study on KLA implementation
in Surakarta City explained that the difficulties in
this development consist of three things, namely (1)
technical implementation concerning the indicator
set by the ministry, (2) synergicity of each SKPD
(unit of official service unit) Which has not been
optimal so that all KLA programs are still sectoral
and not institutionalized, and (3) there is still no
good child rights perspective in the community.
These three things make KLA implementation
hampered because both state and society as the
holder of fulfillment of children's rights have not
been able to realize child protection.
The development of children's rights perspective
with the aim of protection and fulfillment of
children's rights is done through three lines, namely:
government, society and family. The Government
makes laws, regulations and various policy programs
as a form of child protection. Meanwhile,
communities and families are the target of the policy
actors are the institutions established to protect
children in a real way. In the context of society,
child protection efforts cannot be done simply
because there must be an understanding of the rights
and protection of children first in their minds.
However, socialization to communities related to the
protection and rights of children often faces
constraints in terms of program funding. Surakarta,
which has more than 10 years of policy to adopt
decent city program, has implemented various
program synergy among stakeholders and various
offices in city government. Surakarta has even
become a model for best practice implementation of
KLA in Indonesia for other regions.
Various efforts made to realize child protection
seem to be impossible if not balanced with the
public understanding of the issue of children's rights,
282
Liestyasari, S. and Budiati, A.
The Role of Family Welfare Program Activity to Accelerate Surakarta as Child Friendly City.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 2, pages 282-285
ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

whether it is the understanding of the rights of
children and the form of protection that must be
given. This paper will discuss how the strategy of
understanding the rights of children to the
community, one of which is done through a
government program that lives in the community,
the family welfare empowerment program or
commonly abbreviated with the PKK. The PKK
program is widely known in the community as an
empowerment program that focuses on the role of
women (women) for sustainable development,
especially on the issue of children. Utilizing the
PKK as a place for internalizing children's rights to
mothers is expected to be one of the strategies for
the acceleration of city worthy of children through
community participation.
2 METHODOLOGY
This paper is based on research with a qualitative
approach that relies on verbal data sources as the
main data of research. This research was conducted
in surakarta city with the consideration that the city
is one of the best cities in the implementation of city
worthy of children in Indonesia. In addition,
Surakarta also responded to KLA policy by forming
various sub divisions in government to handle child
issues directly. In this case the KLA working group
division is integrated with the monthly activities of
the mothers in the community that is the activity of
family welfare empowerment program.
Data collection techniques in this study were
conducted by conducting focus group discussions
with the PKK in each sub-district which then
deepened by conducting interviews to selected
informants. Those interviewed were selected citizens
based on their involvement in the KLA program in
the community. For example, KLA working
groups, volunteer’s observers of children in the
community, and also some members of the PKK
group at each district level.
Data analysis techniques in this study using
interactive analysis techniques Miles & Hubberman
where conducted data collection, data reduction,
data analysis and drawing conclusions.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Along with the MDG's appeals that are adapted
through RPJP and RPJM, human development in
Indonesia is increasing in all areas of economy,
social, culture and politics. The fulfillment of
children's rights is one of the forms of sustainable
development to produce the next generation of
quality nations. In the context of the KLA policy, the
government conducts various development and
strategies as an effort to achieve the implementation
of child rights protection. However, the strategy is
often done only make the community as the object
of policy goals, not policy actors. In fact, the
protection of children is very close to family and
parents (community) as the main actors of the
program activities. Thus, involving the community
in child protection is crucial (Unicef, 2016).
One of the forums of women's organizations in
the village and sub-village is the Empowerment of
Family Welfare (PKK). PKK is a village community
organization that is able to mobilize rural
community participation in development, also play a
role in village growth activities. PKK as a movement
that grows from below with women as a driver in
building, fostering, and forming families to realize
the welfare of the family as the smallest unit of the
community, originated from Home Economics
seminar in Bogor in 1957.
The PKK movement was disseminated to the
community through the care of Central Java
Governor's wife in 1967 (Mrs. Isriati Moenadi), who
formed efforts to improve family welfare through 10
main family programs by forming PKK mobilization
teams at all levels, whose team membership was
volunteer and consisting of Community leaders,
wives of heads of government offices and wives of
district heads up to village and village levels, whose
activities are supported by regional budgets and
expenditures, and continue to develop so that on 27
December 1972 the interior minister issued no. Sus
3/6/12 to all governors in Indonesia, to change the
name of family welfare education to be "family
welfare development".
However, as the development, eventually
renamed the Family Welfare Empowerment (PKK).
The PKK is more directed to its role in promoting
women's participation in rural development through
its programs to bring women as an agent of great
importance to the welfare of families and
communities. The 10 programs held by PKK are:
appreciation and experience of Pancasila, gotong
royong (team work), food, clothing, housing and
housekeeping, education and skills, health,
cooperative life development, environmental
sustainability and healthy planning.
Empowerment and Family Welfare or commonly
referred to as PKK acronym, is the national
movement of Indonesia in the development of
The Role of Family Welfare Program Activity to Accelerate Surakarta as Child Friendly City
283

society, which grew from the bottom where the
management based on the concept of "FROM, BY
and FOR" the community towards the establishment
of a family of faith and piety to God Almighty,
Noble and virtuous, prosperous, advanced and
independent, justice and gender equality, and legal
and environmental awareness.
Family welfare the main objective of the PKK.
This is because the family is the smallest unit of
society that will greatly affect the performance of
development in support of government programs.
From this prosperous family, the living order of
nation and state will be able to give birth to peace,
security, harmony, and peace. Thus, family welfare
becomes one of the benchmarks and barometers in
development with government programs (Salfiah,
2013).
The PKK is a movement to assist and support
government programs by listing some of the
necessary aspects such as health (in particular) and
education that are significantly related to the growth
and rights of the child. The existence of the PKK
movement has been widely acknowledged as a
movement from and by the community, a partner of
the government in carrying out development. This
women-driven movement also proved to support the
development acceleration through the 10 main
programs implemented by this organization. PKK
movement as a movement from below and beneficial
to society especially in rural area. In addition, it also
plays a role in developing the world of education,
especially in Early Childhood Education (PAUD),
PKK Health Sector is required to revive Posyandu
and help assist mothers who give birth and will give
birth, thus reducing maternal and child mortality
during childbirth, in the economic field is expected
PKK Help small and medium businesses done by
mothers.
Then what about child protection? Child growth
in our society is very socially close to the role of a
woman as a mother. Child growth includes health,
education, recreation and child care. PKK as an
executive motor of various national policies related
to the family welfare program is very potential to
familiarize the understanding of children's rights as
the spearhead of the realization of child protection.
In Surakarta, the PKK program is aimed to support
the implementation of both central and city
government programs. When Kota Surakarta formed
PPT (Integrated Service Post) which was used as a
service place for handling violence against women
and children early in urban village level, PKK
became one of the participating movers in it.
Similarly, when formed KLA working group in
every village, PKK cadres become significant to be
involved in it. PKK cadres then continue all the
information obtained from above hierarchically to be
forwarded to the grassroots (the community) ie the
mothers. PKK is formed hierarchically in cities, sub-
districts, villages, RWs and RTs down to a smaller
scale ie "dasa wisma" (consisting of 10 families).
Within the scope of community-based child
protection, Unicef (2016) explains that the
framework undertaken targets communities, families
and children. Thus, the PKK is one of the goals to
develop an understanding of the rights of children at
the community level and to bring it to the family
level for the ultimate goal of child protection.
In Kota Surakarta, PKK activities at RT level are
mandatory for all families (mothers) every month.
PKK activities are usually held in the afternoon with
the main focus of information from the top
government, social gathering and savings and loans,
social activities and other additional activities. In
many neighborhoods, PKK activities are also
conducted to coordinate other matters concerning
community life such as wastes, security fees, and
other communal activities (17 August, Eid al-Adha,
halal bi halal) as well as posyandu activities for
children under five and the elderly and various
activities other. Additional activities are usually
done by bringing in sources from various parties
related to information about something, usually
cooking skills or demonstrations of household needs
and health education. All of which leads to a more
prosperous family.
In every sub-district the obligation for mothers to
follow the PKK every month is applied. This is
captured by PKK managers at the city level as a tool
to conduct various socializations related to
government policies, especially child protection.
They organize competitions in each area ranging
from healthy babies and posyandu which in it
requires mother's knowledge about child health and
also child protection. The competition was initiated
at the city level and then down to the sub-district
level to the village / kelurahan level. In the focus
group discussions conducted during the study it was
found that various child protection policy programs
were integrated through PKK activities with the
main target of women as socially cultured mothers
constructed as the main buffer of child care.
In the context of child protection, the PKK is
usually involved by the municipality to participate in
socialization tailored to the city's annual activity
plan. In the socialization, usually, only PKK cadres
are included to then convey to the community at the
ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education
284

monthly PKK event held. Such information is
delivered at the beginning of the event but is often
overlooked. This is because the process of delivering
the majority in the PKK event seems very
normative, by simply reading the information only
but it does not lead to the formation of the people's
mindset according to what the program wants from
above. Thus, the socialization of children's rights
through the PKK will usually come to the stage of
knowing but not yet practicing.
As a city that has been conducting KLA program
for more than 10 years Surakarta utilize PKK not
only as a formal pickle which is required by the
government but also insert various "big narrative"
for the sake of government especially slogan of
surakarta city as Child Friendly City. The
institutional paradigm developed by PKK is a top
down paradigm and based on the official hierarchy
structure from the central level to the area
represented by the Board of Trustees, so that the big
narrative still has the opportunity to dominate policy
and control the programs undertaken by the PKK.
This paradigm moves from the concept of
education, coaching, and empowerment. The
educational paradigm directs the PKK to be
responsible for the domestic sector, while the
guidance paradigm causes the PKK's burden to grow
larger because it is responsible for the family.
Furthermore, the empowerment paradigm is
developed so that PKK can make efforts to empower
families although, in fact power keeps doing the
control (Handayani, 2012). The big narrative in
question is the discourse of child protection by
controlling the mother's role on the child's survival.
Women as mothers do experience more workloads
but a child protection framework can be
implemented through PKK programs.
The PKK in the Surakarta city scope integrates
child protection programs as a binding and
institutionalized part of the PKK program, for
example by optimizing posyandu to reach child
health information, through the role of cadres to
institutionalize the understanding of the rights of
children packaged in daily life habits. Political,
economic and social change in Indonesia and
Indonesia's commitment to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals, have an impact on the
development and operational implementation of the
PKK. The demand for PKK's flexibility to become a
development agent and change agent is getting
stronger. The emergence of the global economic
crisis and the environment (ecosystem) that must be
addressed by the government, making the
organization of PKK as development agents and
agents of change in the forefront, especially in
improving family welfare. PKK's gait in the
community is also one of the icons of the movement
of civil society in improving family welfare and
more effectiveness with the presence of cadres who
reach up to the village level. With the strong
movement of family and women empowerment at
the grassroots level, the implementation of
participatory development especially in urban
society will have significant added-value.
4 CONCLUSIONS
PKK and child protection are quite closely linked
through the role of a woman as a mother and her
family responsibilities in child development. As a
city that has more than a decade of implementing
KLA, Surakarta has developed various strategies to
accelerate the realization of child protection. One
way is to optimize the role of the PKK as a local
community within the community that is used to
involve the community in child protection efforts.
This effort is done by building a perspective on
understanding children's rights through PKK cadres
at every level of the region.
REFERENCES
Agustinawati, E., 2012. Pengembangan Kota Layak Anak
di Surakarta, Penelitian Hibah Bersaing DIKTI.
Surakarta.
Handayani, T. S., 2012. Pemberdayaan dan
Kesejahteraan Keluarga. Journal of Cultural Studies
November 2012.
Salfiah, R., 2013. Peran Pemberdayaan dan Kesejahteraan
Keluarga (PKK) Dalam Mendukung Program
Pemerintah Kota Bontang. Journal Ilmu
Pemerintahan, 2013, 1 (3): 975-984. ISSN 2338-3615.
Unicef, 2016. Kajian Ringkasan Perlindungan Anak
Berbasis Sistem, Unicef Indonesia. Jakarta.
The Role of Family Welfare Program Activity to Accelerate Surakarta as Child Friendly City
285