Exploitation of Working Children in Indonesia

Abstract

Forcing children to enter the labour force not only violates the rights of children, but also brings adverse effects to them. The presence of working children can’t be eliminated. Government can reduce the number of working children and protect them from exploitation. This study investigated the determinants of working children, the severity of exploitation of working children, and factors determining exploitation of working children. This study used data resulted from National Labor Force Survey (Sakernas) 2011 and utilized logistic regression as the analytical tool. The result suggests that the most influential determinant of working children is child’s school participation. Children that do not attend school have of being a working children that is 10.370 times greater than that of children that do attend school. Based on the severity of exploitation, there are three provinces which are always of high value severity of exploitation, namely Jakarta, Banten and West Java. The most influential factor of exploitation measured by working hours and access to education is education level of household head. The lower the level of education of head of household, the greater chance the child to be exploited. As for the exploitation measured by wage, girls have a chance 2.357 times greater than that of boys to be exploited measured by wages.