Govt Resolved to Free Nation from Child Workers

Semarang, Central Java (Antara) - Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar has repeated his statement that the government is determined to free the country from child laborers in 2020. "The government is launching a program to withdraw child workers from their workplace and send them to schools so that they would not be trapped in any worst forms of child labour," the minister said here on Saturday. He had previously made the same remarks in East Java recently. Muhaimin repeated the remarks when handing over school assistance packages for 1,650 child workers in Central Java at the Semarang Police Academy building. He said that the government was committed to eliminate child laborers. "The government's commitment is reflected in its second ratification of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 138 on Minimum Age for Admission to Employment and No. 182 On The Worst Forms of Child Labour," the minister said. He said that the withdrawal of children from their workplace program was coordinately implemented by various government agencies and institutions in provinces and districts/municipalities. He said that with the Child Labor Elimination Program (PPA) in support of its Family Empowerment Program (PKH), Indonesia is expected to be free from child laborers in 2020. The minister said earlier in East Java that the government had since 2008 withdrawn 32,663 child laborers from their workplaces and sent them to schools. "We are planning to free 11,000 and 14,000 others respectively this year and in 2014," Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said when handing over the same school assistance packages for 2,280 children who had been freed from their workplace in East Java. (*)