http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/1261087070/some-37-740-babies-in-w-java-suffering-parental-neglect
Some 37,740 babies in W Java suffering parental neglect Friday, December 18, 2009 04:57 WIB | National | | Viewed 98 time(s) Tasikmalaya (ANTARA News) - As many as 37,740 babies in West Jawa have been categorized as neglected because of economic straits and their parents` ignorance about basic human rights, a human rights activist said. Citing 2009 data from the West Java provincial social affairs office, a member of the National Human Rights Action Plan Committee, Asep Cahyanto, said the widespread neglect of under-five infants was the result of two factors : poverty and ignorance about basic human rights. Babies were not being taken care of as they should because their parents were living in economic conditions below the poverty line and did not know that children were entitled to proper care by their own or substitute parents . "These babies, when they grow up, tend to become victims of various forms of exploitation such as contributing to adults` income by begging in the streets or even becoming objects of human trafficking," he said. When poor parents or families are unable to take proper care of their under-five infants, it is the government that should step in and ensure that their basic right not to be neglected is respected, Asep said. "In existing laws, the government is supposed to play an important role in preventing the violation of basic human rights but in practice, this provision is being implemented only half-heartedly," he added. Meanwhile, the secretary of Tasikmalaya`s municipal government, H Tio Indra Setiadim said , in addition to the 37,740 neglected babies, West Java had 301,357 abandoned children, 45,215 teenage school dropouts, 20,655 street urchins, and 31 human trafficking victims. "These data can be used as reference material for the implementation of the national human rights action plan in West Java," he said. (*) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
