Date: Sat, 30 Dec 1995 02:05:29 GMT
/* Written 8:58 PM Dec 27, 1995 by gn:tapol in igc:reg.indonesia */
/* ---------- "Alarming data about Indon. childre" ---------- */
Jakarta (abridged)
Undernutrition is prevalent among Indonesian children and a cause for serious concern, the UN Children's Fund, Unicef, said yesterday.
The nutrition level of about nine million children or 40 percent of Indonesia's children still needs serious attention from the government, NGOs and others,' Unicef chief representative, Stephen Woodhouse said from his Jakarta office.
According to Unicef data, 60 percent of infant mortality in Indonesia is caused by undernutrition, he said.
Jakarta - A senior government official said some 2.6 million Indonesian children work, many of them longer hours than adults, news reports said Saturday.
Suyono Yahya, secretary to the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, said that based on a 1993 survey, 2.31 million working children live in rural areas and 290,000 reside in urban areas. He said the number of working children has increased as the country's population has grown.
About 50,000 of the 2.6 million child workers are labouring under conditions that failed to meet criteria set by the International Labour Organisation, Yayha said.
'Most violations occur in urban areas, where children tend to work long hours, often even longer than adult workers.' he said, explaining that some children work as average of 43 hours a week while their adult counterparts work on an average of 37.5 hours a week.
