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The Indonesian government is aiming to give the estimated 8,000 street children in Jakarta at least Rp 1.4 million ($160) each by the end of the year as part of efforts to get them off the streets.

Social Affairs Minister Salim Segaf Al-Jufri said 3,500 street children have so far received the allowances, which come in the form of savings accounts, through various shelters.

“So for the next eight months, the rest must be covered,” he told reporters at the Vice Presidential Palace on Thursday.

The savings program is part of efforts to help meet the ambitious goal of having Jakarta’s roads free of street children by the end of the year, and the rest of the country by 2014.

Salim said there are currently about 230,000 street children in the country, and if the program proves to be successful in Jakarta, it could be replicated in other areas.

The idea behind the program is to provide children with allowances to eliminate the need for them to go out on the streets and find money.

“Almost 80 percent of the children out working on the streets are there on orders of their parents. If they don’t come home with money, the parents would not let them in,” the minister said.

Therefore, with this program, he said, the parents should be responsible enough to no longer ask their children to go to the street and work.

The money, he added, should be used for the needs of the children, such as food and other snacks.

“The savings are purely for the needs of the children. If the money is used for other purposes, then we will take it back,” he said.

Other areas planning to adopt the program after Jakarta are Bandung, Solo, Surabaya, Semarang, Makassar and Medan.

But since the government’s budget for the program is limited, Salim is calling on private companies to become involved in the effort through their respective corporate social responsibility programs.

Besides the savings program, Salim said parents also need to be empowered.

“Many of the children’s parents are unemployed so they need to be empowered,” he said, adding that other directorates under the ministry are working to address this part of the problem.

Other ministries and government agencies are chipping in, as well. The police, for example, were working to enforce the law against criminal rings that use children as buskers.

“That is exploitation and trafficking for which police must take action,” he said.