Responding to the death of an elementary school student in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) after their family was unable to buy notebooks and pens, Amnesty International Indonesia's Executive Director Usman Hamid said:
"What happened in NTT is a product of structural poverty. We express our deepest condolences to the family of the deceased. This is a heartbreaking human tragedy. It's a harsh blow to a state that has failed to protect human rights.
This tragedy highlights the irony of state budget policy. While a child ends their life in response to the burden of poverty for a family unable to afford stationery worth less than 10,000 rupiah, the state will fork out 17 trillion rupiah on membership fees for the [US President Donald Trump's] Board of Peace, 350 trillion rupiah on the free nutritional meals (MBG) program and 400 trillion rupiah on the Red and White Cooperatives program.
The government must evaluate its policy programs and ensure that adequate programs are in place to effectively address poverty. Poverty makes children vulnerable to human rights violations. The death of YBS shows the state's failure to ensure access to education for poor children. The right to education extends beyond school fees to learning materials. This failure impacts children's psychological well-being, especially when they live in extreme poverty.
Poverty makes people feel marginalised, devalued and powerless. It can impact their ability to participate in civic, social, political and cultural life in society, including enjoying the right to education.
Poverty makes people feel like their voices are unheard. Reflecting on this heartbreaking incident, we urge a comprehensive evaluation of poverty eradication programs and free education so that cases like that of YBS do not occur again. The state must involve affected communities and listen to their aspirations.
Adequate education is a right guaranteed by the Constitution and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The state is obliged to fulfill this right, not only by providing school buildings, but also by ensuring that every child has access to educational support facilities without financial barriers.
The state cannot just be present in the grand narrative of trillions of rupiah in budgets for other programs, but absent when a child allegedly ends up taking their own life for lack of books and pens.
Social justice in this country will never be established as long as access to education remains a luxury for the poor and is still undervalued by the state."
Background
A fourth-grade elementary school student in Ngada regency, East Nusa Tenggara, with the initials YBS, allegedly committed suicide near a hut where they lived with their grandmother on January 29, as revealed by media reports based on a local police investigation. The 10-year-old child was allegedly distraught over the situation they faced after their mother was unable to fulfill a request to buy them notebooks and pens worth less than 10,000 rupiah.
The Ngada District Police investigation also revealed that YBS allegedly wrote a farewell letter in the local dialect of Ngada to their mother, with the initials MGT. The letter asked their mother to let them go, not to cry, not to look for them, or to miss them. Police have questioned several witnesses and are still investigating the suspected suicide.
The Naruwolo Village head, as quoted by the media, revealed that the night before the incident, the deceased had asked their mother for money to buy notebooks and pens. Their mother however was unable to fulfill the request because to the family's difficult economic situation.
The deceased and their mother were both poor. MGT was a widow with five children who worked as a farmer and casual labourer. YBS was forced to live with their grandmother in a hut to help reduce the burden on the family.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Kematian siswa SD di NTT, ironi hak asasi manusia".]
