The Jakarta City Administration plans to shut down the Kalijodo red light district, the biggest in the city, by January 2015. A number of illegal settlements in the area will also be knocked down.
“We want to clean up Kalijodo, our target for completion is January,” said Saefullah, Jakarta Regional Secretary, as quoted by Kompas on Monday.
The National Commission of Human Rights (Komnas HAM) initially recommended Kalijodo’s clean up to the city administration. They believed the red light district could have adverse mental effects on the children in the area.
The city administration will give financial compensation to illegal settlers in the area. They will also be offered the chance to relocate to cheap apartments elsewhere.
However, there will be no compensation of any kind offered to Kalijodo’s sex workers.
“Sex workers usually live in rented houses. Whereas the people we’ll be moving to cheap apartments have families and built their homes there [in Kalijodo]. We’re shutting down the commercialized sex aspect for now, there’s no place for them,” Saefullah said.
The city administration said it also plans to build roads and green areas in Kalijodo to improve the psychological well-being of children in the area.
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