REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, Jakarta -- The increase in violence against children in Indonesia will pose a serious challenge to the existence of this nation to compete with other countries, Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Yembise stated.

"The quality of Indonesian human resources is inseparable from the role of children who constitute 34 percent of the total population," she remarked here on Thursday.

Yembise noted that the role of some 87 million children in Indonesia entirely depends on their protection and the fulfillment of their rights from cradle to 18 years of age.

She reiterated that the increase in the number of child abuse cases still poses a serious problem for the optimal development of children in the country.

A survey conducted in 2013 by the women's empowerment and child protection minister on a group of youth in the age group of 18 to 24 years indicated that one in every two boys and one in every six girls in Indonesia had experienced sexual, physical, and emotional violence before reaching 18 years of age.

A similar survey conducted on another group of 13- to 17-year-olds indicated that no less than 30 percent of boys and girls were reported to have experienced a similar form of violence in the last 12 years.

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