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Last year, Riska seriously contemplated suicide. The 14-year-old student, who struggled with weight issues, was acutely depressed because of relentless bullying by schoolmates who called her 'fat girl'.

She was perched on a window sill of her home with one foot over the ledge when her parents spotted her. They made sure she quickly received psychiatric help.

Not so lucky, however, were two other teens who hung themselves in their homes after being bullied in school. Fifteen-year-old Linda killed herself in 2006 after being picked on by schoolmates for failing classes in junior high.

A year later, 13-year-old Fifi Kusrini's case came to light. She was being teased by schoolmates who found out that her father was a street vendor.

Bullying in schools is one of the leading reasons for child suicides in Indonesia. The suicides highlight a worrying trend in the country, where as many as 30 children aged six to 15 either committed or attempted suicide in the first half of the last decade (2001 to 2005), according to figures available at Sejiwa, an anti-bullying non-governmental organization.

Last year, Indonesia's National Commission for Child Protection recorded 2,339 cases of physical, psychological and sexual violence against children, of which 300 were for bullying. The figure, however, is a significant fall from 498 cases a year before, and 525 cases in 2008.

This decline may be attributed to heightened awareness about bullying and significant steps by local NGOs and parents' groups to tackle the problem by talking to teachers and holding seminars.

Earlier this month, media reports announced the production of a children's musical film, titled Langit Biru (Blue Sky), that would deal with the issue among others faced by students.

The release of the film later this year will be accompanied by the launch of a public awareness campaign called Stop Bullying, which will mainly target schools in Jakarta.

But Sejiwa chief Diena Haryana said that, despite the launch of awareness campaigns, there are still cases of children turning to home schooling after being traumatized by older children at school.

'Bullying at schools is still rampant in Indonesia,' she said. 'The number of cases is higher in rural areas where there is less access to information, media... Teachers there still adopt the old-school way of disciplining students, which is by way of applying pressure.'

She added that many bullying cases have not been reported as victims tend to keep the incidents to themselves.

Indonesia ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1996 and passed its child protection law in 2003, but implementation on the ground was way lower than expectation.

The UN convention guarantees every child a right to live, grow up, participate in any activity and be protected from discrimination.

It says a government must guarantee that these rights are served in its country.

Indonesia's child protection law, however, does not make it clear that the government is responsible for ensuring that the convention rules are followed.

If a teacher denies a child's right to challenge what the teacher says, that amounts to breaching the convention, said Diena.

Similarly, an older student could prevent younger ones from participating in certain activities or debating certain issues, she said.

'What we found on the ground during our visits to schools was that many, if not most, teachers in Indonesia do not know about these four rights each child is entitled to according to the UN convention. So how can they ensure students get their rights?'

This lack of knowledge among teachers contributes to their failure in spotting and preventing cases of bullying in schools.

Some experts also blame the worrying trend on Indonesian television stations, which have uncensored broadcasts of violence showing high school students throwing stones at and punching it out with one another in street brawls.

Arist Merdeka Sirait, head of the National Commission for Child Protection, agreed. 'People around the children have been setting bad examples,' he said. 'Teachers using violence in classrooms, television showing Members of Parliament fighting with one another. Children can easily be copying them.'

Indeed, a recent MMS clip making its rounds shows a teacher whacking four students on their heads and cheeks with a rolled-up newspaper - in front of a classroom.

The footage, discreetly taken by a student attending the class, was broadcast nationwide by MetroTV, creating shockwaves among parents across the country.

However, the school in Cimahi of West Java province did not sack the teacher, and merely issued a warning letter.

Diena said the incident happened three weeks ago. 'Those kids looked very depressed,' she said, especially for being punished in a humiliating way before their classmates. 'That was a harsh way to discipline students.'

Also disturbed by the video was Asrul Darsan, 46, a father of three kids. 'Scary video. We don't know what happens every day to our children,' he said. 'I guess it is very important to choose which school to send your children to. We can't install closed-circuit television at our children's schools, can we?'


Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia. To subscribe to Straits Times Indonesia and/or the Jakarta Globe call 021 2553 5055