Price rises hit Indonesia parents

By Lucy Williamson
BBC News, Jakarta

Indonesian families face growing economic pressures

Financial pressures in Indonesia are driving more families to give up their children, a report says.

The report, by the charity Save the Children, is being jointly launched with the UN children's agency Unicef and the Indonesian government.

It found that about 500,000 Indonesian children are in care institutions, but only about 6% are orphans.

Economic concerns, including rising food prices, are partly to blame, Save the Children says.

'Tough decisions'

The report says the number of children in institutions is rising every year.

Save The Children's Florence Martin, who headed the research, says children are being sent there because of the economic pressures on their families, including increasing food and fuel prices.

"You've got families who are already struggling to cope," she says.

"And anything that is going to make what they spend on daily needs smaller is going to push them to make some tough decisions.

"The increasing food prices, the increasing cost of living in Indonesia is really hitting the poorest families. And when you realise that the great majority of assistance is only available through institutions, that's where the problem is," she adds.

The report is not saying that children are being sent away because of a lack of food at home, but because basics like food are costing more it is putting other costs like education out of reach.

More families are struggling to provide the shoes, books, uniforms and unofficial fees needed to educate their child.

Having a child's schooling paid for is the main reason for sending them to an institution, the report says.

But Ms Martin says that trend in itself is causing problems.

The institutions have very little staff, she says, and the selection process has become skewed towards children old enough to take care of themselves.

"Children were generally recruited around 9-10 years old, and the idea was that by then they should be basically able to wash and clean and cook for themselves, and the staff there were very clear that was one of the main requirements."

Levels of care in the institutions are generally very low, there is often a lack of adult staff and most homes rely on the children themselves to function at the most basic level, Save the Children says.

Indonesia probably has more children in care than any other country in the world, it says, but the government is not monitoring why, nor what happens to them while they are there.