Child labor is a threat to Indonesia’s poverty reduction aspiration
In a seminar series of development policy forum (or Forum Kebijakan Pembangunan, FKP) hosted by CEDS UNPAD on 18 Juli 2012, in Jakarta, Dr. Daniel suryadarma of the Australian National University presented findings from his recent research that confirms the adverse effect of child labor on future earning ability of indonesian children.
In a paper titled “The Consequences of Child Market Work on the Growth of Human Capital” authored by Armand A. Sim, Daniel Suryadarma, and Asep Suryahadi, it is found that children who were engaged in market work in 2000 experienced 0.55 standard deviations lower growth in mathematics skills by 2007 compared to children who were not engaged in market work in 2000. Moreover, they also find that growth in the lung capacity among child workers between 2000 and 2007 to be 0.75 standard deviations lower than non-child workers.
This finding sparked concerns among participants of the seminar as the prevalance of child labor in Indonesia is quite high and lower human capital accumulation is the structural botleneck for Indonesia’s poverty reduction aspiration. This finding is a call for concrete policies to abolish child labor market in Indonesia.
In July 2012, CEDS hosted the FKP featuring three researchers presenting their recent research works where Dr. Daniel Suryadarma is invited as a speaker in the first week of July’s seminar series.
In another FKP seminar (25 Juli 2012), Dr. Iwu Dwisetyani Utomo from Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute, ANU, Canberra presented a research findings on the 2010 Greater Jakarta “Transition to Adulthood Survey: Results and Policy Implications.
In the last seminar of the series, Mr. Martin Daniel Siyaranamual of CEDS, padjadjaran University, presented his work on Social Interaction and Public Goods Provision: A Case of Waste Management in Bandung, Indonesia”. Mr. Siyaranamual research found that the likelihood to purchase the local public good is higher when respondents were given a time to discuss and sharing information about the solid waste management problems and the proposed solution with their neighbours. This finding is a clear evident that social interaction among urban households can potentially create solutions to various problem faced by urban communities including waste management.
Forum Kajian Pembangunan (FKP) is a consortium consisting of various institutions in Indonesia, in collaboration with the Indonesia Project, holds a series of research based policy forums discussing research outcomes related to topical policy issues in Indonesia. More info.