RIGHTS BODY : 22 PCT OF RI CHILDREN LIVE IN STREETS

Jakarta, March 5 (ANTARA) - The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) said around 22 percent of Indonesian children are forced to live in the streets.

"Of the total 17 children in Indonesia, 22 percent live on the streets," Ria, of the Komnas HAM's education and information sub commission, said here on Thursday.

The children were forced to live on the streets although some of them had places to live or parents, she said.

They were abandoned and hardly got any serious attention from the authorities, she said.

Komnas HAM's data showed that the number of street children in jakarta increased by 50 percent in 2009 from a year earlier.

The Jakarta provincial social affairs office has conducted an inventory of street children in places such as at the traffic light areas of Cempaka Mas, Matraman, Rawamangun, Lebak Bulus and Grogol, since February 2010.

The inventory carried out in cooperation with several social foundations, universities, and youth organizations such as the Communication Forum of Community Social Workers (FKPSM), is an initial stage before accommodating the street children at Child Care Centers rung by the government.

The Jakarta social affairs officers also distributed brochures and stickers urging the public not to buy anything from street vendors or give anything to beggars.