Observation

Poor Attention to Slum Area in Tanah Abang, Jakarta
Will Affect the Children


When you drive along the toll road from the international airport of Soekarno-Hatta in Cengkareng, to the downtown let yourself have opportunity to take a glance look at the physical development of the city. Concrete flyovers bring you to several directions, apartments are being a new choice to Jakarta rich people, and some new buildings are under construction to fulfill the needs of offices spaces and hotels demands. But if you take a look around below the flyover, there is still untouched area to be paid a close attention. In some parts, you will find many clusters of huts made of used papers or woven bamboos lie under the shadow of the concrete flyover. Some of them are located right below the concrete trunk of the flyover, some are in the ex-paddy fields, and some are along the bank river. It has been a common picture of the capital city of Indonesia for decades.

Entering the downtown, not quite far from the Merdeka Palace, right behind the skyscrapers, there is another slum area. The area is called Tanah Abang. It was such an unpleasant picture when we visit the area at the first time. It harbors hundreds of small houses; their sizes are 4 x 5 meter on average, stand back-to-back, side-by-side without yard for children to play. A few houses have rooms up stairs; while the rests are only 2 x 2 meter in size. Some people who own bigger house divide it and rent the room to other people.

The clusters of houses are inter-connected with narrow and sometimes dark alleys, only one meter wide. The alley is long, winding, and has junctions and branches to many directions. It is not surprisingly that you need some days to adjust yourself to the surroundings unless you could get lost in the middle of nowhere. It is also a common view that you will find somebody’s kitchen is just across the alley, right in front of the other people living room or at the side of the alley. Since the houses are very close each other, the alley often has minimum light. When you walk in the alley it is like you pass through a cave. Therefore probably you need a flashlight when you walk through the alley.

There is also a river across the area with its black thick water full of domestic garbage. Plastic, rubbers, piece of wood, or broken chair are often floating on the river. There are also hanging toilets on some part of the bank river. But it is quite frequent that you will see floating human faeces in the river. Due to the overloading wasted thing in the river, the unpleasant smells are vapor in the air mixed with the humid atmosphere.

The clusters of houses are bordered with a long concrete wall. It separates the block of houses and railway area. This place is sometimes called “red district” since you can find prostitution practices in some huts in the area. But you often also find children take opportunity to play in the area for they have no playing ground in the neighborhood.

The households in the area have four or five members at the average. They eat, sleep, and do daily activity in the same room in the very small house. Consequently, there has been no privacy between children and their parents. In the other hand, children sometimes have to help the parents to get more income since the parents are mostly small entrepreneur or practicing in informal sectors such as motor taxi drivers, food vendors, laborers, employee at the grocery market of Tanah Abang, etc. Therefore it has been become common situation of the children to skip the school and help their parents. You can imagine what kind of life that would be for the children. Such condition would severely affect the future of the children living in the area and become a social problem. This could not be left behind or handled only by one party, but all stakeholders must take serious responsibility to overcome the problem (Ika N. Krishnayanti/June, 25, 2006).