Building Inclusive Action to Children Through PEDULI Program
Sri Endah Kinasih, Vinsensio Dugis and Pudjio Santoso
Universitas Airlangga, Dharmawangsa Dalam, Surabaya, Indonesia
Keywords: Migrant Workers’ Children, Inclusive, Community Empowerment, Migrant Worker.
Abstract: Sending female migrant workers to work overseas had caused problems for workers’ children. The problems
occurred including difficulties to get birth certificate for children with unmarried foreign father where the
mother works, parents’ history of contagious diseases, prone situation to crimes act such as gang quarrel, drug
abuse, sex before marriage, and unwed pregnancy. This research aims to comprehend the problems related to
migrant workers’ children and the role of PEDULI program to provide a solution in facing the problems. Data
gathered by conducting interview and observation. The research was conducted in Tulungagung, East Java.
Informants for this research are children and family of migrant workers, community figures, Child Protection
Agency, and government agencies. Data analysis was executed by connecting interview result with
observation and further analysis of the data. The research shows that the most common problems faced by
migrant workers’ children are no ownership of birth certificate, crimes act, and free sex. One solution
proposed to overcome the issue was taken through the establishment of PEDULI program as one approach to
handling the problems related to migrant workers’ children. In conclusion, it was found that PEDULI program
is an act of community participation to develop inclusive treatment towards migrant workers’ children who
were prone to exclusive treatment from the surrounding society. Without protection to those children, they
will become a victim of social pressure which could influence their behavior in the future.
1 INTRODUCTION
Community participation which developed to avoid
the act of exclusion from any group is perceived as an
indicator of social participation in community
development program (Shortall, 2008). Community
development is characterized by avoidance of
labelling form several groups or society which
regarded socially different with the prevailing culture.
Community development is essential to attract
participation from all stakeholders. According to
Cornwall (2008), the concept of participation is
beneficial to invite participation from all parties to get
involved in the activity.
A community development activities performed
by Tulungagung society is known as PEDULI
program. PEDULI program is a program initiated by
the local community in cooperation with Child
Protection Agency (Lembaga Perlindungan
Anak/LPA). In 2014, PEDULI program gained
support from Coordinating Ministry of Human
Resources and Culture.
PEDULI program aims to cover the group of
vulnerable children, particularly migrant workers’
children. The program was intended as a precondition
for ensuring that children, including children of
migrant workers, grow and thrive, are protected and
fulfilled their physical and psychological needs (Asia
Foundation, 2016).
According to Wong (2007), the poverty
experienced by marginalized migrant workers’
children were not only caused by economic condition,
but also because of social exclusion manifested in
stigmatization and discrimination of social justice and
social right.
In general, social exclusion is understood as the
process in which individuals or group of people are
systematically denied from full access to various
rights, opportunities and resources which supposed to
be available for members of a different group, and
which are fundamental to social integration and
observance of human rights within that particular
group (Millar, 2007). According to Pierson (2002),
Peace (2001) and Byrne (2005) social exclusion is an
inequality and the formation of social classes in
society caused by a collection of all persons or
individuals not included in the social security system.
This process of social exclusion is a result of
Kinasih, S., Dugis, V. and Santoso, P.
Building Inclusive Action to Children Through PEDULI Program.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 2, pages 323-327
ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
323

government development policy and it may also
occur as a result of the interaction between
community groups in a relation where there is a group
that excludes and there are other who are excluded
(Jarman, 2001; Gough et al., 2006; Sujatmiko, 2011).
Most exclusion cases experienced by children of
migrant workers were not having a birth certificate.
Each year in East Java Province, about 2,000 children
are not having birth certificates. This problem was
caused by several factors, among others, unable to
fulfill administrative requirements such as ID cards,
incomplete family card (Kartu Keluarga) and
parent’s marriage certificate. There were cases where
all those documents were still being used as guarantee
by the family of migrant workers. Children of migrant
workers who were born overseas were often not
having birth certificate because their parents did not
immediately proceed to have the birth certificate
while they were overseas. In few cases, not having
birth certificate also related to children of female
migrant workers who were born out of extramarital
relationships.
Another acute problem related to children of
migrant workers was their susceptibility to especially
crime effects such as brawls, drugs, sexually
transmitted diseases. Data from the Child Protection
Institution (LPA) Tulungagung indicates that there
are about 70% children of migrant workers involved
in crime. The position of the children of migrant
worker is indeed vulnerable because the percentage
of those not obtaining parental affection are high.
Data from LPA Tulungagung shows that there are
about 29,000 those children of migrant workers who
are still in the school age in these districts.
PEDULI program emerged as a strategy to reach
inclusivity for migrant workers’ children to reduce
the social gap due to the stigmatization and
discrimination executed by the surrounding society.
Migrant workers’ children have long been ignored. It
creates social inclusion, intentionally or
unintentionally, by the group who exclude the
children or for the excluded group. Through this
program and support from society, LPA and Human
Resources and Culture Agency, the program is
expected to develop an inclusive social relation in the
community which free from stigmatization and
discrimination. Therefore, this article aims to
comprehend the problems of migrant workers’
children and the role of PEDULI program in
providing solutions to overcome the related problems.
2 RESEACH METHODS
In order to obtain data and empirical information, this
research employs descriptive research type with a
qualitative approach. Research location was
purposively decided and Tulungagung chosen due to
several reasons. a) Several villages in Tulungagung
face a major problem in the child-care method for
children whose parents work as migrant worker. B.
The number of migrant workers is much higher than
the data of migrant workers registered in Regional
Office of Manpower. According to Regional Office
of Manpower, the officially registered migrant
workers' number in Tulungagung is 5.090 workers. C.
Related to the birth certificate for unwed children
between working mother and father originated from
the country where the mother works in 2016 has not
yet gained support to simplify the birth certificate
registration process. D. Children without proper care
are prone to high risk of deviant behavior when they
reach teenage. E. There is a growing stigma in the
society for children born with HIV/AIDS, unwed
children and children with divorced parents.
The second step is data collection. In collecting
the data, observation had done to find behavioral
problems in migrant workers' children and exclusion
treatment from society. In addition, researchers also
held Focus Group Discussion to observe the role of
DINAS PSDM, Child Protection Agency and
community figures in responding the problems of
exclusion for migrant workers' children.
The third step is the in-depth interview. In this
stage, researchers designed several main questions as
guidelines to open the question. Questions were
proposed based on the answer from the main
question.
The fourth step is to decide informants; including
2 community figures, 4 Child Agency Protection
staff, 3 The Office of Human Resources’ staffs and 5
children who experienced exclusion from society.
The last step is data analysis. The data was classified
and identified based on the theme for further analysis.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 The Problem of Children Migrant
Worker: An Exclusion Treatment
from Their Surrounding
Community
Based on the data from The Regional Office of
Manpower, 5.090 migrant workers have worked
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overseas. 90% of them are female migrant workers
aged from 18-40 years old, have family and children.
In accordance with the research from Hondagneu-
Sotelo and Avila (1997) stated that 75% of 153
female migrant workers in Latin America (Mexico, El
Salvador, and Guatemala) have children. Another
research in Sri Lanka stated that 217 respondents
have 1-4 children in average. 62 % have 1-2 children
(Ukwatta, 2010). Many problems occurred when a
child left by his mother to work overseas.
The problems experienced by migrant workers’
children were extremely complex, including
difficulties in obtaining a birth certificate for unwed
children in the country where the mother work,
parents with a history of a contagious disease, prone
to criminal activities such as gang quarrel, drug
abuse, free sex and unwed pregnancy. The result from
the FGD shows that in Tulungagung, there was a
migrant workers’ child who delivered a baby without
marriage form a father she knew from Facebook.
From their virtual introduction, they took a trip to
another city before the man disappeared.
Migrant workers’ children were often visited
Prigi, a location in Trenggalek, to do free sex. The
dim area in Prigi was often used for free sex activities.
This was proven by the scattered remaining in the
area such as tissue, condom, and underwear.
Aside of free sex, migrant workers’ children
spend the remittance money from their parents to
purchase drugs. The remittance money send by
female migrant workers is usually the main source to
cover family expenses such as for kid’s education,
expenses for family members, and for nanny’s salary
(Hondagneu-Sotelo and Avila 1997; Parreñas, 2001)
Those children obtain drugs from a coffee shop.
According to Reza (16 years old), a child of migrant
workers who were in 10th grade in vocational high
school claimed that “migrant workers’ children in
school are often skipped class to buy coffee in the
coffee shop, mam, to purchase cigarette and drugs.
They rarely appeared in class, tardiness in attending
class, and skipped homework.”
From Reza’s statement, it was clearly expressed
that there have been many problems occurred to
migrant worker’s children. Those kids initially ask
permission to their guardian to go to school. In fact,
they skipped class and went to the coffee shop to
consume drugs. It indicates that the remittance money
from their parents is not well managed by the
children.
Reza’s statement was supported by Sri from
Education and Culture Department:
“Migrant workers' children are always troubled,
mam. They did not work on their homework,
smoking, having unwed pregnancy, free sex, and
consuming drugs. They cause troubles every day."
Sri’s statement from Education Agency and
cultures indicates that migrant workers’ children are
certainly troubled which lead to exclusion treatment
to those children, thus they become marginalized.
Another exclusion experienced by the children are
the surrounding society often called them as
“souvenir kids”. The nickname pinned to a child
whose father is a foreigner from the country where
the mother works, whether the parents are married or
not. The mother then delivered a baby with different
physical appearance. The pressure endured by those
children heavily influences their behavior such as low
self-esteem, lack of confidence, introvert, constantly
feels guilty, and unwilling to communicate with
society. According to Ukwatta (2010), the effect from
female migrant workers to their children is apparent
in child development. The void left by the working
mother cause loneliness and social problems to their
children low self-esteem, depression, prone to anger,
and high probability to involved in violence act.
The implications of this unbalanced family
structure to the children are neglected children, lack
of supervision and care, and careless father to the
child (Parreñas, 2005). Even, in teenager age they are
exposed to the risk of unwed pregnancy, involvement
in violence gang, and drug abuse in their
environment, lack of care from their grandparents.
Furthermore, they do not have any substantial
achievement in school and experienced complex
social problems (Ukwatta, 2010).
3.2 Developing inclusive action to
migrant workers’ children through
PEDULI program
PEDULI program is an approach program model
based on social inclusion concept. Social inclusion is
a process to develop social relations by respecting
individual and community so that they could fully
participate in the social process. The concept allows
every party to involve in the decision-making
process, to fulfil their economic needs, to have social
interaction and involved in the political and cultural
process, and to have equal access toward resources in
fulfilling human basic needs. The social inclusion
process is attempted to achieve proper welfare
standard in the society (Program Peduli, 2015). The
process of social inclusion opens many opportunities
for individual or group to achieve their basic right as
a human being and citizen of a country, for examples,
are to build networking and to have the opportunity
Building Inclusive Action to Children Through PEDULI Program
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of self-development as the consequences of the social
exclusion they experienced.
The strategies built through PEDULI program to
cover the problems of migrant workers’ children are:
3.2.1 Increasing Access to Basic Service for
Migrant Workers’ Children
Migrant workers' children have right to access basic
services in order to support their self-development.
The social exclusion they faced caused them
difficulties to access basic services such as education,
health services, and social aid. This was because they
do not have self-identity such as family card and birth
certificate. Moreover, they got a label as troubled kids
who were nearly expelled from school.
Effort from PEDULI programs is designed to
stimulate service before following up the process with
policy advocacy, starting from village level to local
government level to ensure that every children and
teenager who previously experienced social
exclusion have the equal access for just and fair basic
needs fulfillment resources. In Kesambi Village, this
program has been implemented from elementary
school to senior high school.
3.2.2 Increasing Empowerment and Open
Social Reconciliation Media for
Migrant Workers’ Children to Gain
Acceptance from Society
In general, migrant workers’ children are eventually
losing confidence and became an introvert.
Therefore, there is an urgency to develop a strategy to
empower those children to increase their confidence.
Thus, they will be able to interact with the
surrounding society. Empowerment to develop
behavior such as appreciation to other,
communication technique, leadership, and refusal to
get involved in violence act is necessary.
3.2.3 Advocating Policy in Various Levels to
Realize Sustainable Social Inclusion to
Migrant Workers’ Children
Regulation and policy are expected to guarantee the
acceptance of migrant workers' children to the
society. There is a strong need of strategic effort to
formulate a conducive regulation and policy like less
complication to register for birth certificate, to be
fully embrace in education, and to be simplified in
accessing health insurance as written in Constitution
number 23 year 2002 about child protection. This
policy should be implemented from village level to
regency level in order to realize sustainable policy to
achieve children eligible regency. If the policy is well
implemented, it could improve the positive image of
Tulungagung as sister city to be set as an example and
to be performed by another regency.
Inclusive treatment to migrant worker’s children
could be realized with if these three criteria met.
According to Shortall (2008) social inclusive
treatment to them is an act of acknowledgement to
their existence. For migrant workers’ children, this
will open the possibility to society to recognize their
presence, to acknowledge their right of protection, to
be nurtured, to have the chance to interact and
develop themselves, and to express and to state their
opinion, along with other right attached.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The implementation of PEDULI program is an act of
social participation in order to achieve community
development to build inclusive treatment toward
migrant workers’ children. Without protection for
those children, the pressure for them will heavily
influence their behavior such as low self-esteem, lack
of confidence, introvert behavior, guilty, and
unwilling to communicate with the surrounding
society.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This article based on a research funded by The
Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher
Education, Republic of Indonesia, 2017. The research
entitled, “Membangun Forum Anak Desa Dalam
Rangka Penghapusan Eksklusi Anak Buruh Migran
di Jawa Timur”.
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