Inter Press Service News Agency, Tuesday, August 10, 2004
RIGHTS: The 'Invisible' Citizens of Indonesia
Richel Dursin
JAKARTA, Aug 10 (IPS) - Sofi Semiun was born 30 years ago but until now her birth
has not yet been registered.
''My family is too poor to get a birth certificate. I'll just register my birth when it's time
for me to get married,'' said Semiun, a native of Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, who
works as a housemaid in Jakarta.
Semiun is one of thousands of Indonesians without birth certificates, which are
required to enrol in a school, open a bank account, get married, vote, obtain a
passport, acquire jobs and other social services, and without which they cannot
obtain the citizenship card compulsory for all bureaucratic paperwork.
With only 53 percent of Indonesian children under the age of five registered, the
country ranks among the world's ''failed states'' in terms providing birth certificates to
its new-born citizens, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
UNICEF data revealed that last year 47 percent of all Indonesian children under the
age of five or about 10 million children had no birth certificates.
''This places Indonesia among 19 countries in the world with the lowest birth
registration rate,” said Steven Allen, UNICEF representative in Indonesia.
''Many Indonesian children have not been able to get hold of the best education and
other services, including health because they do not have birth certificates,'' Seto
Mulyadi, chairman of the National Commission for Child Protection, told IPS.
Factors hindering universal birth registration in Indonesia include high-priced
registration cost, difficulty of access to administration offices, cumbersome
administrative procedures, weak legal framework and lack of understanding about birth
registration.
''Some officials see birth certificates as a source of revenue for the local government,''
Rohadi Haryanto, director-general for population administration at the Ministry of
Home Affairs, said in an interview.
Obtaining a birth certificate in Indonesia costs between 5,000 to 150,000 rupiahs (56
U.S. cents to 17 U.S. dollars), if not higher in many districts, and takes several
weeks. This is in contradiction with the child protection law, enacted in 2002, which
stipulates free of charge birth registration.
However, the enforcement of the child protection law in Indonesia is easier said than
done, especially with the implementation of regional autonomy, where districts have
greater authority to collect fees and decide budgets.
Out of Indonesia's 400 districts nationwide, only 10 have agreed to provide birth
registration free of charge.
''Birth registration is seen by many local officials as a privilege for which it should be
paid rather than the fundamental right of a child,'' Haryanto said.
''We have to increase the awareness of our local officials and the public about the
importance of birth registration,'' he added.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, East Nusa Tenggara has the lowest
number of registered births last year with 4.6 percent followed by West Nusa
Tenggara with 5.1 percent. Yogyakarta has the highest number of registered births
with 67.5 percent followed by Jakarta with 60.8 percent.
It is estimated that Indonesia has a current population of 215 million, with about 2
million new births every year. However, Indonesia's population might be higher as
many Indonesians are unregistered especially in poor provinces such as Papua,
South Sulawesi and Java.
''Indonesia doesn't have only many unregistered children but also unregistered adults,''
said Haryanto.
''In our village, it's not important to get a birth certificate unless you want to study in a
university or get married,'' Semiun said.
Two years ago 20-year-old Frumens Firmansyah wanted to enrol in a nursing school
in Jakarta. And that was the time his father decided to register his birth in Flores,
East Nusa Tenggara.
''The civil registration office is too far from our village,'' said Hubert Nantik,
Firmansyah's father, who travelled six hours to obtain a birth certificate for his son.
Nantik has yet to register the birth of his 15- year-old daughter, Trivonia Jenalu, a high
school dropout.
In most cases in male-dominated Indonesia, fathers not mothers are required to
register the births of their children.
''Most of the time, Indonesian fathers consider getting a birth certificate as a burden,''
Haryanto said.
At present, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights is working on a law on national
civil registration that will help Indonesians save money and time in registering births.
The current laws governing civil registration, including birth registration in Indonesia
were developed during the Dutch colonial period and are no longer applicable to the
current situation in the country as these laws contain articles which discriminate on
the basis of race, ethnicity and religion.
Under the draft law on national civil registration, birth registration is free and
Indonesians are not required to travel to far-flung district capitals to obtain birth
certificates for their children.
''When the bill is finalised and implemented, the people will just have to go to their
respective sub-districts for data entry and to acquire birth certificates,'' Haryanto said.
The new law will also entail people to possess a birth certificate to apply for an
identification card.
There are about 64 percent of Indonesian workers who had purchased fake ID cards to
get employed, according to the Ministry of Women's Empowerment.
To improve the birth registration system and ability of civil registrars in Indonesia, the
Japanese government had committed to grant 800,000 U.S. dollars. Apart from Japan,
Germany is the other major international donor to UNICEF's birth registration projects.
''Children without birth certificates are vulnerable to various forms of violations of
human rights such as child trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, cheap labour
and illegal adoptions,'' said Yoshitaka Akimoto, minister of the Japanese embassy in
Jakarta.
''If rescued from brothels, factories and private homes, repatriation of the
undocumented child, who cannot prove his or her identity or nationality, can prove
exceedingly difficult, even impossible,” Akimoto told reporters. ''Punishing child
traffickers is further complicated by the difficulty in establishing the legal age of the
child.'' (END/2004)
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