CHILD LABOR POLICY IN DEMOGRAPHY BONUS UTILIZATION

Abstract

Indonesia is facing a dilemmatic demographic bonus. The high number of productive-age population will rapidly increase national economic growth, but without quality improvement, Indonesia will be burdened by high numbers of unskilled labor. It prompts a need for policy priority regarding the quality improvement for population to obtain a comprehensive study on policy priority which has been made by stakeholders in regards to child labor as a preventive action, and to accurately devise intervention recommendations. This research was conducted using exploratory qualitative approach, analyzing field data obtained on purposefully selected provinces of North Sumatra and Bangka Belitung. Data collected using primary sources (field observations, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions) and secondary sources (desk study using descriptive statistic and literatures). Result shows that the root problem of child labor is the pull of economic activity that offers attractive income for families. Another root problem is poverty and the desire of children to earn their own money. Many obstacles were faced by the policymaker in implementing a sustainable child labor policy, such as: 1) unstable policy coordination, 2) lack of commitment and conflict of interest between stakeholders and policy maker, 3) effectiveness of socialization methods, and 4) lack of synergy due to sectoral ego that occurred in various related institutions in the regions. In terms of the demographic bonus, child labor policy implementation should be comprehensive and followed by operational policies that offer reward and punishment for the family, such as socio-economic incentives.