The Role of Government in Handling the Street Children Problem

A Study Case in Surabaya City, Indonesia

Bayu Prabhata Arinugraha

Postgradute School, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia

Keywords: Government Role, Empowerment, Street Children.

Abstract: The phenomenon of street children is a problem that we still often encounter. This needs special attention

considering children are the next generation and also the assets of the nation. The advancement of a country

will depend heavily on its present and future generations. Therefore, the welfare of children is an important

part of the effort to create quality human resources. The government has one role to build the society for the

development of a country. This research aimed to see how the role of government especially The

Government of Surabaya City in handling street children problem. This research used descriptive qualitative

method with data obtained from interviews and previous studies. The result explained that besides making

local regulation on child protection and welfare, The Government of Surabaya City also cooperate with

several parties to handle street children problem such as Social Service, Civil Service Police, National Unity

and Community Protection Agency, City Police Area, Health Department, Education Department and other

parties. In addition, for the empowerment of street children, The Government of Surabaya City also formed

Technical Implementation Unit of The Service “Kampung Anak Negeri” which aims to restore the children

rights and manifest normative and independent child behavior so they can carry out their social function

adequately in public life.

1 INTRODUCTION

Over the past five decades, the phenomenon of street

children has become prominent globally in major

cities of the world. The United Nations estimates the

worldwide population of street children at 150

million. This phenomenon is incessantly

transcending to the level where it is viewed as a

worrisome global existing problem. There is no

country, no city and anywhere in this world today

without the presence of street children (Rwamuhuru,

2011). According to Agiati (2014), street children

are children who spend most of their daily life on the

streets, whether looking for income or just

wandering the streets or public places. This

phenomenon is a social welfare issue that needs

special attention because a child should be in a

family that protects them and be able to meet their

needs.

The conditions have become more severe since

the economic crisis in 1997. Although it is not the

only factor that led to street children, the impact is

significant. This is due to the poverty that is getting

worse because of the economic crisis. The

increasingly difficult situation indirectly led to the

increasing number of children seeking activities in

order to earn money to help their parents' economies

by taking them to the streets and many of them were

forced to leave school to earn a living on the street

(Aribowo, 2009). Based on data from the National

Welfare Agency (BKSN), the increase of street

children before the crisis was 15% and then

increased up to 100% during the crisis.

Factors that caused the children to go down to

the street are not only because of economic factors,

but also caused by other factors such as divorce or

violence. In the opinion of Kopoka (2010);

Omiyinka and Festus (2010); Lugalla & Mbwambo

(1999); and Rwamuhuru (2011), the phenomenon of

street children is partly a reflection of many

problems such as extreme poverty, hunger,

insecurity, lack of social services, child abuse,

domestic violence, displacement caused by

communal clashes, inadequate care, death of a

parent (or both parents), need for income in the

family, inability to continue in school, wilful

deviance in a few children, unemployment of one or

both parents, illiteracy, housing challenges, drug use

820

Arinugraha, B.

The Role of Government in Handling the Street Children Problem.

DOI: 10.5220/0007552108200825

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference Postgraduate School (ICPS 2018), pages 820-825

ISBN: 978-989-758-348-3

 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reser ved

by children, and peer influence. These children find

themselves with no choice but to make a living in

the street for their own survival and often that of

their families. Street life has become the best

alternative for them in search for their livelihoods

after family settings and other community support

system failed.

Children are the future generation and also the

assets of the nation. The advancement of a country

will depend heavily on the present and future

generations. Therefore, the welfare of children is

important to create quality human resources. This

will only happen if all parties can respect and treat

children according to their rights. If children do not

get their rights and also social protection then they

will tend to experience problems or even become the

problem itself, one of them is street children. Aep in

Putra et al (2010) explained that the problem of

street children is seen as a problem that gives a

negative view of development. Their existence is not

often used as poverty indicator or crisis of social

values. In addition, Aribowo (2009) also mentioned

that the problem of street children is a problem that

has no end and will never end (Aribowo, 2009).

Therefore, research on the problem of street children

is necessary to be conducted.

The United Nations Conventions on the Rights

of the Child (1989) as explained in Brick (2002),

which came into force in September 1990, has had a

huge impact in defining conceptual frameworks and

humanitarian concern regarding children in

adversity. The Convention asserted a number of

rights for children worldwide, formulated basic

principles to be applied, and created a legal

obligation to put these rights and principles into

practices. Concern for children in difficult

circumstances was no longer a matter of

humanitarian and charitable concern, but now is a

legal responsibility falling on a state as party to the

convention. The Convention listed the areas where

the rights and interests of children must be taken into

account. For example, separation from parents,

freedom of expression, health, education and

employment and enunciated that in all actions

concerning children, the best interest of the child

shall be a prime consideration.

The government and local autonomous bodies

have played very important roles for the effective

implementation of community development

programs. Community development fundamentally

involves a series of actions and decisions that

improves the situation of a community, not just

economically, but as a strong functioning

community. In addition, Mustafa K Hussein (2003)

in Tuke et al (2011) described that the goals of

government in the community development areas

are to: ensure that local government has input into

the formulation of policies and strategies aimed at

enhancing the level and scope of community, social

and economic development and service; and

maximize local government’s access to funding and

resources to provide appropriate community services

and facilities.

In Indonesia, Article 34 of the 1945 Constitution

becomes the evidence for the importance of the

government role to participate in addressing the

problems of street children in Indonesia. This article

mentions that the poor and neglected children are

kept by the state. In addition, the government has

issued Law No. 4 Year 1979 about child welfare and

Law No. 23 Year 2002 about child protection. By

looking at this law, it can be explained that the

handling of street children is very important

considering the negative impact that will arise if this

problem continues. Inhibition of the fulfillment of

the rights of children, especially street children, will

affect the survival of the child itself, nation and

country. Lema (2014) explained that from all the

agents who are capable of doing something about

the street children problem, the government may be

the best to deal with this problem.

As one of the largest cities in Indonesia, the

government of Surabaya City has also not escaped

its role in dealing with street children problems.

Tuke et al (2017) explained that local government is

the closest government to the people and thus, a

channel through which the community feels the

pulse of other higher level of government. Local

government is the hub for social, economic,

technology, cultural, health and environment

development for effective participation in the

community development as said on the previous

part.

Table 1: The number of streen children in Surabaya city.

Year Total

2012 114

2013 94

2014 76

2015 85

2017 50

Source: Central Bureau of Statistic

The Surabaya City is one of the largest cities in

Indonesia that is unavoidable from this street

children problem. Until 2017, the number of street

The Role of Government in Handling the Street Children Problem

821

children in Surabaya has reached 50 children, but

this figure is relatively decreasing compared to

previous years (Table 1). Seeing this phenomenon,

the author intends to see how The Role of Surabaya

City Government in Handling the Problems of Street

Children.

2 LITERATURE STUDY

2.1 Definition of Street Children

The street children is defined as children who may

have parents or guardians in a locality living and

working in the street. Street children engage in work

or employment on a regular basis with the aim of

earning a livelihood for themselves or for their

families. Such activities are often carried out at the

expense of schooling (UNICEF and FME in Lema,

2014).

Street children are, perhaps, the most vulnerable

section of the society who suffers from human

deprivations of all forms. They are forced to live on

the street adding to their vulnerable and distressed

situations which leave them with serious

implications for their growth and development. For

some people, either politicians, decisions makers or

general public, these children are repulsive and an

anarchy of the towns and cities. However,

irrespective of those concepts and perceptions, the

street children have the rights as human being.

(Rwamuhuru, 2011).

Lusk (1992) in Aptekar (1994) developed four

categories of street children. Each group has its own

psychological characteristics. First, there are poor

working children returning to their families at night.

They are likely to attend school and not delinquent.

Second, there are independent street workers. Their

family ties are beginning to break down, their school

attendance is decreasing, and their delinquency is

increasing. Third, there are children of street

families who live and work with their families in the

street. Their conditions are related to poverty.

Finally, the last are the children who have family

estrangement. They are residing in the streets full

time and are the “real” street children.

2.1 Definition of Governance

1. Country Governance Assessment (Asian

Development Bank, 2005) “Governance is the

sound exercise of political, economic, and

administrative authority to manage a country’s

resources for development. It involves the

institutionalization of a system through which

citizens, institutions, organizations, and groups in

a society articulate their interests, exercise their

rights, and mediate their differences in pursuit of

the collective good”

2. UNDP (1997) “Governance refers to how

organization, including a nation, is run. It

includes all the processes, systems, and controls

that are used to safeguard and grow assets”

3 METHOD

This research used qualitative descriptive method to

describe the role of Surabaya City Government in

handling the street children problem. Data were

obtained from interviews as well as literature studies

from previous studies. The interview was conducted

at Social Service of Surabaya City and Technical

Implementation Unit of The Service “Kampung

Anak Negeri” Surabaya.

4 FINDING AND DISCUSSION

In handling street children, the government of

Indonesia has various basic regulations, including

Article 34 of the 1945 Constitution, 10

part of Law

No. 39/1999, Presidential Decree no. 36/1990, Law

Number 23/2002, Child Welfare Law No. 23/2002,

No. 4/1979, and Government Regulation No.

2/1988. Meanwhile, the Surabaya City Government

also has several regulations in handling this street

children problem. Some of these regulations are

Local Regulation No. 6/2011 about The

Implementation of Child Protection and No. 2/2012

about The Implementation of Social Welfare. As a

manifestation of the implementation of these

regulations, the Surabaya City Government held

cooperation in handling people with social welfare

problems by prioritizing the five categories

including street children (Rahmaveda, 2017).

Amorowati (2008) described the efforts made by

Surabaya City Government in handling the street

children problem. These efforts consist of

preventive, repressive, and empowering actions.

Several institutions are also involved in these efforts,

namely Social Service, Civil Service Police,

National Unity and Community Protection Agency,

City Police Area, Health Department, Education

Department and other parties. In its implementation,

not infrequently these institutions involve other

stakeholders, such as NGOs including shelter houses

ICPS 2018 - 2nd International Conference Postgraduate School

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or educational institutions such as Institute for

Research and Community Service University in

Surabaya.

Preventive action is carried out in the form of

socialization and appeals to the community which is

done in cooperation with related institutions such as

Civil Service Police and NGOs. Repressive action is

carried out through the sympathetic operation of

street children as well as the maintenance/disregard

of related location. This activity is carried out by

conducting raids on street children, which are

conducted simultaneously with operations against

homeless and beggars. In order to carry out this

activity, The Social Service collaborates with

National Unity and Community Protection Agency

and also City Police Area. Street children who are

rescued through sympathetic operation will undergo

a pre-rehabilitation process which is identified and

selected to get training. Empowerment action is

done through the program of shelter house. The

shelter program is an effort to provide homes for

street children who are expected to be an

intermediary vehicle between street children and

those who help them to provide the right

intervention. Ideally, the shelter house is expected to

be an informal training process that provides a

resocialization atmosphere for street children to the

prevailing value system and norms in family and

society (Amorowati, 2008)

In empowering street children in Surabaya,

Social Service established a special place to

accommodate children with social problems called

Technical Implementation Unit of The Service

“Kampung Anak Negeri” with the capacity of 35

people. This unit was formed by the Social Service

on January 4, 2009 based on the Decision of the

Head of Service Number: 467//436.6.15/2009

followed by Regulation of Mayor No. 61/2012 about

the Technical Implementation Unit of The Service

“Kampung Anak Negeri” of Social Service

Surabaya City. In Kampung Anak Negeri, an

empowerment program is aimed at children with

social problems, including street children by giving

power to street children so they can improve their

independence and will not go to the street again.

Technical Implementation Unit of the Service

“Kampung Anak Negeri” has a vision to make

children with social problems behave normatively

and independently so that they can perform their

social functions adequately in social life. Its mission

is to organize social services for children with social

problems, to raise awareness to develop the potential

of children with social problems and facilitate the

growth of motivation and community effort in

handling children with social problems. The children

with social problem mentioned above include street

children, neglected children and naughty children.

The results of the interviews with Technical

Implementation Unit of The Service “Kampung

Anak Negeri” explained that street children who

were trained there participated in various activities

to change their behavior which includes mentoring,

spiritual, physical, social and talent. Mental spiritual

guidance is greatly emphasized through worship

activities i.e. praying and Quran reciting. Physical

guidance is done by conducting a physical fitness

exercise and community service of “Kampung Anak

Negeri” environment. Social guidance aims to build

communication with others through the socialization

of the surrounding environment, and guidance of

interest by facilitating activities in accordance with

their interests and talents such as entrepreneurship,

sports, arts, bike racing, handicraft, self-defenced art

and others.

Implementation of street children empowerment

in Surabaya through are done through two processes,

namely recruitment process and service process

(Sari, 2015). Based on the results of interviews with

the Social Service Surabaya, this recruitment process

starts from the raid stage which is an activity that

aims to pick up or take by force according to the

provisions of the law against children with social

problems from the streets. Street children are

rescued from raids are then taken to Environmental

Social Cottage in Keputih. In there, they follow the

initial training and medical examination for 7 days.

For those who have a family, the family is offered to

follow a special coaching/empowering in Technical

Implementation Unit of The Service “Kampung

Anak Negeri”. At this stage, street children's

families are given explanations about the purpose

and benefits of coaching/empowering, the form of

activities and facilities of “Kampung Anak Negeri”.

If they are not willing, street children will be

returned to the family. For those who do not have a

family, they will be sent to Kampung Anak Negeri.

This information is justified by “Kampung Anak

Negeri” who said that if no family visiting/picking

up and deemed to be fostered or meet the

requirements to be built in “Kampung Anak

Negeri”, they will be registered to “Kampung Anak

Negeri”.

Identification and selection activities involve

doctors, psychologists, administrators, and street

children companion. The identification process

includes a thorough physical health examination,

psychic examination, resume completion, and

administrative completeness checks. In this process,

The Role of Government in Handling the Street Children Problem

823

street children who are considered qualified as

clients with criteria such as aged between 10-18

years old, Surabaya residents, from poor families, no

physical and spiritual disabilities, and school

dropouts (Sari, 2015)

After going through the recruitment process it

will be continued with service process. Sari (2015)

explained that during the empowerment in

“Kampung Anak Negeri”, each child is given

physiological needs such as food service, board, and

clothing. At this stage, the child must follow some

service procedures at “Kampung Anak Negeri”

consisting of:

1. Assessment

Assessment is a review and disclosure

activity to find out all client issues, establish plan

and implementation of intervention. These

activities include (a) Social Assessment: the

process of disclosing the problem and the ability

of the client through interview and observation.

(b) Psychological Assessment: the process of

expressing interest, potential ability and

intelligence. (c) Health assessment: examination

process of physical condition and health.

2. Orientation Activities

Orientation is done in the form of

introduction of programs and environment of the

shelter through group dynamics and outbound

activities. The goal is that children can have

confidence and grow social solidarity.

3. Intervention

The purpose of intervention is to create and

change the child's mental and behavior to be

adaptive and normative. Interventions consist of

mental guidance, physical guidance, social

counseling, interest guidance, and cognitive

guidance.

4. Termination

Termination of the training program is for the

children who have followed the activities for 6

months. This process can be remedied because if

it is considered that 6 months has not been

enough to change the mental and behavior of

children.

5. Evaluation

Evaluation is the process of evaluating the

whole performance of the program. The purpose

of the evaluation itself is to know the

success/failure of the programs and activities to

children so it can be improved in the future.

5 CONCLUSION

Children are the future generation and also the assets

of the nation. The advancement of a country will

depend heavily on the present and future

generations. Therefore, protection of the children

rights is something that must be done. The

phenomenon of street children certainly explains the

life of a child who is far from what they should be.

The government, especially local government, have

played very important roles for the effective

implementation of community development

programs including children development. Local

government is the closest government to the people

and thus, a channel through which the community

feels the pulse of other higher level of government.

Local government is the hub for social, economic,

technology, cultural, health and environment

development for effective participation in the

community development as said on the previous part

(Tuke et al, 2017).

Surabaya already has regulations and several

programs in dealing with street children problems.

As explained by UNDP (1997) that governance

refers to how organization, including a nation, is run.

It includes all the processes, systems, and controls

that are used to safeguard and grow assets. In

addition, Lema (2014) also explained that of from all

the agents who are able to do something about the

problem of street children, the government is

probably the best to deal with this. In detail, the

result explained that besides making local regulation

on child protection and welfare, The Government of

Surabaya City also collaborates with several parties

to handle street children problem such as Social

Service, Civil Service Police, National Unity and

Community Protection Agency, City Police Area,

Health Department, Education Department and other

parties. In addition, for the empowerment of street

children, The Government of Surabaya City also

formed Technical Implementation Unit of The

Service “Kampung Anak Negeri” which aims to

restore the children rights and manifest normative

and independent child behavior so they can carry out

their social function adequately in public life.

The Surabaya City Government has carried out

its role in handling the problem of street children in

Surabaya city both in terms of regulation and

practice. However, this has not been able to handle

the problems of street children in Surabaya

optimally. Although the number of street children

tends to decrease, there are still around 50 children

who are recorded as street children. These children

should get all their rights as a child as stated in the

ICPS 2018 - 2nd International Conference Postgraduate School

824

Child Protection Regulations. The empowerment

program carried out by the Surabaya city

government through the “Kampung Anak Negeri”,

which aims to restore children's rights, is only able

to accommodate about 35 street children. In

addition, there are still a number of street children

who have not completed their empowerment

programs at the “Kampung Anak Negeri”. Of

course, these obstacles must be addressed

immediately so the problem of street children in

Surabaya can be resolved.

The challenge for all societies is to create a

system of governance that promotes, supports and

sustains human development – especially for the

poorest and most marginal. Therefore, Surabaya

City Government should continue to develop in

handling the problems of street children so that the

implementation of the program handling and

empowering street children can be more effective

and efficient.

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