Last weekend’s arrest of four people for allegedly beating and drugging children to help beg for money has not only put the spotlight on the age-old issue of child begging in Jakarta (finally!), it may also cause a huge change to the capital’s transportation system.
Jakarta’s 3-in-1 system, which only allows cars with 3 or more people onto certain main roads in the city during rush hour, was started in an attempt to regulate the awful morning and evening macet. But some critics say the system is now facilitating child abuse.
Many drivers get around the 3-in-1 rule by hiring a “joki”, a person who makes money by hopping into cars so that they can be used on the main roads during 3-in-1 hours. Many joki carry babies with them so they are more likely to be picked up. But last weekend’s arrests have strengthened the belief that some of these babies are being rented out to joki by their parents for Rp 200k per day, and, even more horribly, some are being given sedatives to keep them quiet.
Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama has been quick to use the new attention on the issue of child beggars to push for action. Yesterday, he announced he would build a boarding school for 2,000 child beggars before the end of the year, and today he announced that the city would probably do a test run of lifting the 3-in-1 rule as soon as next week.
“Yes, next month as in next week, maybe we’ll just test doing a week without 3-in-1 and see how it goes,” Ahok said today as quoted by Sindonews.
Ahok said that he believed that public transportation along the main roads were already good enough to deal with the traffic, and that the planned Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system will make the 3-in-1 system obsolete anyways.
“In our opinion Transjakarta bus corridor 1 is good enough, as long as it can be kept clear and there are enough buses, people have a choice,” he said.
The governor also said that the 3-in-1 system was far from efficient. Besides the possibility that it could be causing child abuse, Ahok said that enforcement of the traffic scheme was inadequate – for example many cars use dark glass so police can’t check how many people are inside the vehicle.
Do you think it’s time for the 3-in-1 system to go? Let us know what you think on our Facebook page.
Reader Interactions