BEKASI (Indonesia): On a chilly Monday morning, 11-year-old Sudarsono is busy scavenging for any type of garbage he can sell and make some money. As he picks up a dirty plastic cup and tosses it into his basket on his back, he notices a dump truck approaching. He flags down the truck and as it stops, climbs atop it and starts sorting out the heaps of garbage it carries. From the load of garbage, he finds a broken trumpet and blows it.

“I can find many toys in this place,” says a smiling Sudarsono, referring to the 104-hectare dumpsite at Bantar Gebang in Bekasi, West Java. Sudarsono’s “toys” include soiled plastic cups and cans, pieces of paper, metal, glass, and scraps of wood that he sells for 100 rupiah a kilogramme. In a day, he earns 10,000 rupiah (about $1)that he gives to his parents, also scavengers at Bantar Gebang, Jakarta’s main dumpsite.

For four years now, Sudarsono and his parents, who are migrants from Central Java, have been working at Bantar Gebang from 6am to 3pm They live in a makeshift hut near it as well. At past 12 noon, Sudarsono, together with his 35-year-old mother Ngatmi and 38-year-old father Karti have lunch at the dumpsite, sitting on top of piles of waste and unmindful of the stench and flies around them.

Such is life for Sudarsono and his family, who are among at least 2,000 scavengers from Bekasi and 4,000 others from various towns benefiting from the Bantar Gebang dumpsite. Life is far from ideal here. But many, including the more than 700 children aged seven to 15 who work nine to 12 hours a day at Bantar Gebang, have gotten used to it and know how much they depend on the dumpsite to survive.

The child scavengers are among the 6.5 million Indonesian children forced to work to survive, according to the National Commission for Child Protection. The figure represents a more than 100 percent increase from last year’s 2.7 million child labourers, it adds.

According to the commission, this year continues to looks bleak for many Indonesian children as the prolonged economic crisis, from which the country has to yet to recover, forces more and more of them to earn a living. Aside from working in dumpsites, children can be found working in fishing platforms, factories, plantations, farms, brothels, and on the streets.

Some children like 10-year-old Mina say they say they know no other life apart from poverty. “It is better to beg than to steal,” says Mina, who carries her five-year-old sister Ita, as she asks for money from passersby in front of a shopping mall here. According to Mina, if she and her sister do not beg, her father, who is a “preman” or hoodlum, will beat them.

Having to work also means these children, like Sudarsono who is supposed to be in grade four, are not in school because of the work at the dumpsite. “I don’t like to go to school anymore. My family can’t afford to pay the school fees,” says eight-year-old Saipun, who also works as a scavenger after he goes home from school at 11am

The children working as scavengers risk getting injured or even killed by the dump trucks and bulldozers that operate at the dumpsite. They are also exposed to different diseases such as typhoid fever, tapeworm, tetanus and diarrhoea.

Two months ago, nine-year-old Dendi fell from a moving garbage truck and hurt his right leg but he still sifts through rubbish all day long at Bantar Gebang. Nine-year-old Esih is nursing a wound on her ankle after stepping on broken glass at the dumpsite. Esih has never been to school but has worked as a scavenger for three years. —Dawn/InterPress Service.