MATARAM - A group of antitobacco activists grouped under the Indonesian Young Reformers aim to collect 10,000 plea letters from children of several regions to urge President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to step up measures to curb smoking in the country.
The letters will be handed over during an event to commemorate National Children’s Day in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, on July 23.
“One of the letters will be read aloud in Mataram. The children wish for a tobacco-free Indonesia,” Syamsul Hadi, a group member, said on Monday. The movement has participants in 17 regions. After years of resistance, the Health Ministry announced recently that the government would formally adopt the UN Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
The commitment, however, has yet to be realized while lawmakers are pushing forward with a tobacco bill that gives more privileges to the tobacco industry and farmers.
A recently released report by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) titled The Harvest is in My Blood: Hazardous Child Labor in Tobacco Farming in Indonesia, documents how child tobacco workers are exposed to nicotine, handle toxic chemicals, use sharp tools and work in extreme heat.
The HRW interviewed 132 children aged 8 to 17 working in tobacco farms in four provinces: West Java, Central Java, East Java and West Nusa Tenggara.