* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Amrullah Amrullah is the Child Protection Programme Manager for Plan International in Indonesia.
Opportunities are few for those who live in Jakarta’s slums. That’s especially true for children - some collect plastic bottles and sort through trash, others play the banjo on local buses for spare change, making just enough money to get by. Worryingly, many of these children do not officially exist. Their parents cannot afford to pay for birth certificates and without a certificate their future is extremely limited.
With high costs and excessive red tape, obtaining a birth certificate in Indonesia can be a bureaucratic nightmare. But birth registration is absolutely critical. Without a legal identity, access to education and basic healthcare is denied. Marriage registration, a passport and the right to vote are also out of reach.
Data from the Ministry of Social Affairs in 2012 showed that there were 94,000 street children in Indonesia, including an estimated 7,000 in Jakarta. Only a fifth (22 per cent) had been registered.
Indonesia has one of the lowest rates of birth registration among countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam, for example, more than 90 per cent of the population is registered.
Last year, Plan surveyed five slums in Jakarta and found that more than 60 per cent of parents had never even tried to register their children. Across Indonesia, Plan estimates that as many as three million children every year join the 30 to 35 million in total who are unregistered.
The public services system often doesn’t provide adequate opportunities for street children to register, with a long list of documents required to meet the criteria. These include: Birth Notification, a Letter of Birth Report from the Village Head, Family Card or Letter of Domicile Notification and Parents’ Marriage/Divorce Certificate.
Plan’s survey found only 54 per cent of respondents had a birth notification for their children. The majority, 84 per cent, did not have a letter of birth report from their Village Head. Only around half had a Family Card/Letter of Domicile and only 40 per cent of respondents had a marriage certificate issued by the Civil Registration Office.
Politically, the state is obliged to develop a system that ensures child welfare and protection and recently the Ministry of Social Affairs launched a national child welfare programme. The goal of the programme is to give every child a savings account with a one-off deposit of around ${esc.dollar}150 (£90) to cover basic education and health costs. But without a birth certificate, unregistered children are unlikely to qualify.
Ani, who’s 15, doesn’t know where her father is which has meant she can’t get a birth certificate. To register, she needs her father’s ID card, her parents’ marriage certificate and a family card to be able to register. She is frustrated that she isn’t an official citizen of her country.
Tri, 15, attends an informal school and works as a street singer earning about ${esc.dollar}2 a day (£1.20). He is aware of the value of getting a birth certificate, especially for his education.
“My parents have divorced. My father is busy at work and he has no time to register for my birth certificate. He doesn’t even understand its importance,” he says.
Since 2012, Plan International has run a program through its Count Every Child initiative for street children in Jakarta, part-funded by the charity’s UK office and insurance provider Aviva. This programme is aimed at raising awareness among street children and their families on the importance of birth registration, and to help the government provide easily accessible birth registration.
Plan has already had some success after lobbying the government on birth registration. Last year the Indonesian Parliament changed the law to make registering births simpler and cheaper, scrapping fees and also removing the requirement that the certificate had to be issued where the birth took place. Already more than a thousand children have registered using the simplified procedure.
It shows what can be achieved by bringing together different partners from civil society, the corporate sector, the government and communities to help excluded children.
Click here to find out more about Plan's work on birth registration.
Opportunities are few for those who live in Jakarta’s slums. That’s especially true for children - some collect plastic bottles and sort through trash, others play the banjo on local buses for spare change, making just enough money to get by. Worryingly, many of these children do not officially exist. Their parents cannot afford to pay for birth certificates and without a certificate their future is extremely limited.
With high costs and excessive red tape, obtaining a birth certificate in Indonesia can be a bureaucratic nightmare. But birth registration is absolutely critical. Without a legal identity, access to education and basic healthcare is denied. Marriage registration, a passport and the right to vote are also out of reach.
Data from the Ministry of Social Affairs in 2012 showed that there were 94,000 street children in Indonesia, including an estimated 7,000 in Jakarta. Only a fifth (22 per cent) had been registered.
Indonesia has one of the lowest rates of birth registration among countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam, for example, more than 90 per cent of the population is registered.
Last year, Plan surveyed five slums in Jakarta and found that more than 60 per cent of parents had never even tried to register their children. Across Indonesia, Plan estimates that as many as three million children every year join the 30 to 35 million in total who are unregistered.
The public services system often doesn’t provide adequate opportunities for street children to register, with a long list of documents required to meet the criteria. These include: Birth Notification, a Letter of Birth Report from the Village Head, Family Card or Letter of Domicile Notification and Parents’ Marriage/Divorce Certificate.
Plan’s survey found only 54 per cent of respondents had a birth notification for their children. The majority, 84 per cent, did not have a letter of birth report from their Village Head. Only around half had a Family Card/Letter of Domicile and only 40 per cent of respondents had a marriage certificate issued by the Civil Registration Office.
Politically, the state is obliged to develop a system that ensures child welfare and protection and recently the Ministry of Social Affairs launched a national child welfare programme. The goal of the programme is to give every child a savings account with a one-off deposit of around ${esc.dollar}150 (£90) to cover basic education and health costs. But without a birth certificate, unregistered children are unlikely to qualify.
Ani, who’s 15, doesn’t know where her father is which has meant she can’t get a birth certificate. To register, she needs her father’s ID card, her parents’ marriage certificate and a family card to be able to register. She is frustrated that she isn’t an official citizen of her country.
Tri, 15, attends an informal school and works as a street singer earning about ${esc.dollar}2 a day (£1.20). He is aware of the value of getting a birth certificate, especially for his education.
“My parents have divorced. My father is busy at work and he has no time to register for my birth certificate. He doesn’t even understand its importance,” he says.
Since 2012, Plan International has run a program through its Count Every Child initiative for street children in Jakarta, part-funded by the charity’s UK office and insurance provider Aviva. This programme is aimed at raising awareness among street children and their families on the importance of birth registration, and to help the government provide easily accessible birth registration.
Plan has already had some success after lobbying the government on birth registration. Last year the Indonesian Parliament changed the law to make registering births simpler and cheaper, scrapping fees and also removing the requirement that the certificate had to be issued where the birth took place. Already more than a thousand children have registered using the simplified procedure.
It shows what can be achieved by bringing together different partners from civil society, the corporate sector, the government and communities to help excluded children.
Click here to find out more about Plan's work on birth registration.
