The social affairs ministry has a policy that living in a nursing home is the last alternative."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Around two million Indonesian children do not live with their biological parents but they live in nursing homes or live with their relatives or adoptive parents, an official said.
Ideally children should live with their biological parents because it has positive impacts on the development of their personality, Samsudi, the social affairs ministry`s social rehabilitation director general, said here on Tuesday on the occasion of the National Children`s Day which is observed on July 23.
Improper parenting could lead to problems such as violence, drug addiction, and criminality, he said.
Child rearing by biological parents could help prevent children from having deviant behavior, he said. Parenting by relatives or adoptive parents should be one of the last options.
He cited a study that children living with their biological parents usually develop better personality.
"The social affairs ministry has a policy that living in a nursing home is the last alternative. The ministry adopts a national standard of child rearing. A child could not directly go to a nursing home but they should have family-based parenting first," he said.
(T.D016/Uu.F001/B003)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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