0 Girl’s Death Prompts Vows for Better Health Access

Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo has vowed better access to health care for the poor, following a visit to the family of an 11-year-old girl who died of an infection believed to have been contracted after repeated sexual abuse. Speaking to reporters after the visit on Monday at the family’s home in Cakung, East Jakarta, Joko said that as governor it was ultimately his responsibility to ensure that the kind of care that the victim needed should have been readily available. 

“Everything that happens in Jakarta is my responsibility because the buck stops with me,” he said. He added that he would oversee the improvement of services at city-owned hospitals and community health centers, saying that all public health facilities must have the capacity to treat minors who had experienced physical or sexual assault. “Any aspect of public health care that’s still substandard will have to be fixed, whether it’s the hospitals, community health centers, the quality of service — everything. 

Especially services for underprivileged families,” Joko said. “Those who didn’t get much attention before must be treated the same as others, even if they can’t afford to pay.” He also pledged his administration’s support to the bereaved family in seeking justice for the death of the girl, identified only as R.S. The fifth-grader, the daughter of trash pickers, was found to have extensive rectal and vaginal injuries when she was taken to hospital late last month suffering from acute seizures. 

She was placed in intensive care on Dec. 29, but her condition continued to deteriorate and she fell into a coma shortly before passing away on Sunday. Emma Nurhaema a pediatrician treating the victim, said that R.S. had been suffering from a brain infection. “We conducted a CT scan and found an infection in the brain,” she said, adding that the infection could have been caused by the injuries to her vaginal area. Police said on Monday that they would name a suspect soon for the sexual abuse. 

Child rights activists have seized on the case as an opportunity for the authorities to take a firm stance against child abuse. Arist Merdeka Sirait, the secretary general of the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA), said that cases like those of R.S. would continue to occur unless the government took serious and meaningful action immediately to resolve the underlying causes of child abuse. Komnas PA noted that it had received 2,637 reports of child abuse last year, of which 62 percent, or 1,526 cases, involved sexual abuse. Both figures mark an increase from 2011, when the organization received 2,509 reports, 52 percent of which involved the sexual abuse of a minor.

source : the jakarta globe