(IPS) feature

On a chilly Monday morning, 11-year-old Sudarsono is busy scavenging for any type of garbage he can sell and make some money.

As he picks up a dirty plastic cup and tosses it into his basket on his back, he notices a dump truck approaching. He flags down the truck and as it stops, climbs atop it and starts sorting out the heaps of garbage it carries. From the load of garbage, he finds a broken trumpet and blows it.

''I can find many toys in this place,'' says a smiling Sudarsono, referring to the 104-hectare dumpsite at Bantar Gebang in Bekasi, West Java, about 50km south-east from Jakarta.

Sudarsono's ''toys'' include soiled plastic cups and cans, pieces of paper, metal, glass, and scraps of wood that he sells for 100 rupiah a kilogramme. In a day, he earns 10,000 rupiah or roughly US$1 that he gives to his parents, also scavengers at Bantar Gebang, Jakarta's main dumpsite.

For four years now, Sudarsono and his parents, who are migrants from Central Java, have been working at Bantar Gebang from 6am to 3pm. They live in a makeshift hut near it as well.

Unmindful of the stench

At past 12 noon, Sudarsono, together with his 35-year-old mother Ngatmi and 38-year-old father Karti have lunch at the dumpsite, sitting on top of piles of waste and unmindful of the stench and flies around them.

''I'm already used to the dirt and getting sick,'' says Sudarsono as he puts a toothpick, which he reaped from the piles of garbage, into his mouth.

But every time he gets sick, Sudarsono, the second among three children, continues to work. Though he stays at home, made from scrap wood and corrugated iron, he continues to crush plastic cups and cans that his family gathers from the dumpsite.

Such is life for Sudarsono and his family, who are among at least 2,000 scavengers from Bekasi and 4,000 others from various towns benefiting from the Bantar Gebang dumpsite.

Life is far from ideal here. But many, including the more than 700 children aged seven to 15 years who work nine to 12 hours a day at Bantar Gebang, have gotten used to it and know how much they depend on the dumpsite to survive.

Child scavengers

The child scavengers are among the 6.5 million Indonesian children forced to work to survive, according to the National Commission for Child Protection, known by its Indonesian acronym KPA. The figure represents a more than 100 percent increase from last year's 2.7 million child labourers, it adds.

According to the commission, this year continues to looks bleak for many Indonesian children as the prolonged economic crisis, from which the country has to yet to recover, forces more and more of them to earn a living.

Aside from working in dumpsites, children can be found working in fishing platforms, factories, plantations, farms, brothels, and on the streets.

Some children like 10-year-old Mina say they say they know no other life apart from poverty. ''It is better to beg than to steal,'' says Mina, who carries her five-year-old sister Ita, as she asks for money from passersby in front of a shopping mall in Bekasi.

According to Mina, if she and her sister do not beg, her father, who is a preman or hoodlum, will beat them.

''The government lacks the political will to protect children,'' says Arist Merdeka Sirait, KPA secretary. ''The government enforcement of child labour laws is non-existent.''

Exploitation and negligence

Several months ago, the commission and other non-governmental organisations submitted a bill on children's protection to the House of Representatives. But until now, it has not been debated.

''All forms of exploitation, discrimination, negligence of children's rights and other violence against children are crimes against humanity,'' says KPA chair Seto Mulyadi.

''Abuses of children's basic rights would create an aggressive and anarchic generation,'' Mulyadi rues.

Having to work also means these children, like Sudarsono who is supposed to be in grade four, are not in school.

Already, the ministry of national education says, more than eight million school-age children throughout Indonesia have been unable to attend school since the start of the country's economic woes in 1997.

''I don't like to go to school anymore. My family can't afford to pay the school fees,'' says eight-year-old Saipun, who also works as a scavenger after he goes home from school at 11am.

Every month, Saipun, who is in grade two, has to pay a school fee of 50,000 rupiah (US$5), which he deducts from his monthly earnings of 150,000 rupiah (US$15).

'Nothing to eat'

''I hope this dumpsite will not be closed because if it will be shut down, my family won't be able to eat,'' says Saipun, whose parents also work as scavengers at Bantar Gebang.

When the dumpsite was closed for five days from Dec 10, Sudarsono, Saipun and their other scavenger friends, many of them children of migrant farmers from Java provinces, stayed in their makeshift homes and had nothing to eat.

Bekasi authorities closed down the Bantar Gebang dumpsite, which has been used by Jakarta since 1986, because of the Jakarta administration's failure to solve the environmental damage in the area.

After being persuaded by Jakarta officials, Bekasi authorities reopened the dumpsite on Dec 15 and gave the Jakarta administration a one-month grace period. However, they say the municipality will again close the site on Feb 1 if the Jakarta administration fails to improve conditions at Bantar Gebang.

Jakarta produces 25,000 cubic metres of domestic waste daily and that volume continues to grow. Of these, 23,000 cubic metres of garbage are collected and transported daily to Bantar Gebang dumpsite, and the rest are left scattered.

Exposed to diseases

The children working as scavengers risk getting injured or even killed by the dump trucks and bulldozers that operate at the dumpsite. They are also exposed to different diseases such as typhoid fever, tapeworm, tetanus and diarrhoea.

Two months ago, nine-year-old Dendi fell from a moving garbage truck and hurt his right leg but he still sifts through rubbish all day long at Bantar Gebang.

Nine-year-old Esih is nursing a wound on her ankle after stepping on broken glass at the dumpsite.

Esih has never been to school but has worked as a scavenger for three years now after her mother remarried. ''I'm not happy here,'' Esih says, as she is teased by her friend, 11-year-old Ino, also a scavenger.

''Esih and I will get married when she is 13 years old,'' Ino muses. ''It is common here that girls get married as early as 13 to their fellow scavengers,'' he says.