SOCIAL WELFARE DEVELOPMENT ISSUES IN INDONESIA

Introduction
In industrialized, rapidly changing societies, social welfare has become an important function within its national development strategies. Social welfare is not a new term, either in global or national discourses. Since 19606, the Unites States, has addressed the issue of social welfare as one of the activities of international community. Social welfare is an institution or a field of activities involving organized activities carried out by government and private institutions aimed at preventing and addressing social problems as well as at impoving the quality of life of individuals, groups, and society. In Indonesia, the term social welfare can be found in Law No. 11 of 2009 concerning Social Welfare. The constitution states that the state has the obligation and a mandate to advance the wellbeing of Indonesian people, and in order to fulfill the obligation, the government has to create various programs for increasing the quality of people lives, and these programs are conducted by same departments or ministries as well as by local government. The main target or beneficiaries of social welfare is the poor and vulnerable people although general population especially those facing social problems can also be the recipients of social welfare. In certain aspects, the development also creates various social problems, such as poverty, juvenile delinquency, substance abuse, child abuse, etc. Empirically, the policy of development in all sectors increase the economic growth and creates job opportunities for people, however in the other sides, the impact of development still creates social problems in the community.

Situation Analysis
The situation of social welfare in Indonesia can be seen in the Human Development Index (HDI). In 2007, Indonesia`s HDI ranked 107 among 177 countries in the world. Compared with the index in the ASEAN neighboring countries, it shows that Indonesian`s standard of living was above Cambodia (131) and Myanmar (132). However, this position was far below Singapore (25), Brunei Darussalam (30), Malaysia (63), Thailand (78), and the Philippines (80). This low HDI does not only indicate the failure of economic development and the low quality of human resources, but also reveal the failure of social welfare development. This is supported by the fact that poverty and human misery are still among the most serious social problems in Indonesia.

Although the rate of poverty between 2002 and 2009 tended to decrease, the absolute number is still considerably high. In 2008 and 2009, the number of people living in poverty was 35 millions and 32.5 millions respectively, accounting for 15.4% and 14.1% of the total population.

Historical, Political, Economic, Ideological, and Cultural Factors

Historically, the social welfare programs in Indonesia has been carried out since Indonesia achieved independence in 1945 until now, and the Ministry of Social Affairs bas become the leading sectors in running of the programs besides the participation of non-governmental organizations. Politically, the executive and legislative have a political will to handle social problems by creating several regulations about children protection, children welfare, domestic violation, social protection system, human rights, etc. the government attempts to employ personnel who have knowledge and skills in social work, but the number of social workers is limited. The economic crisis in Indonesia also impacted on the vulnerable condition of the community, it was indicated by the increase of social problems, such as poor people, neglected children, unemployment, etc. Based on data of Central Bureau of Statistics, the population of poor people in 2004 was 36.175 million, and if compared with the total population approximately 238 million, the problem is very serious. The crisis also generated difficulties in term of the budget of social welfare programs, because the government focused on recovering the economic condition. Indonesia has an ideology called Pancasila. This ideology become a part of the community live, the values of the ideology guide people`s behavior and the government. The values of Pancasila related to the social work are about the social justice for all Indonesian people and the humanity. The mission of social welfare programs conducted mostly will reflect these values, so that, social workers work and serve the people who need help by taking into account of these values.

Social Welfare Issues and Method of Intervention

There are various social welfare problems in the community, and the social welfare services are performed by various sector of government and the community. The social welfare services provided by the Ministry of Social Affairs are the following: The assistance Program for the poorest people The rehabilitation program for slum areas The program for street children The program for the community in isolated areas The program for neglected children The program for the victims of disasters The program for disabilities The program for juvenile delinquency The program for handling substance abuse
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The program for elderly The program for handicap children The program for children below 5 years The program for the persons not complying with social norms The program for social security The program for empowering and developing social welfare potential The program for empowering family roles The program for empowering organizations of youth The program for increasing volunteers The social guidance program The program for developing social organizations The program for developing local institutions The program for sustaining and utilizing heroism and pioneers The social assistance program for the domestic violence victims and migrant labors The program for the emergence and internal displace persons The program for utilizing social resources The program for developing partnership inter-sectors with business institutions The program of the gasoline compensation for social welfare program.

Even though there are many social welfare problems occurred in the community, the Ministry of Social Affairs has a priority to focus on five major issues: Poverty, especially the poorest of the poor Neglected children and elderly Disabilities Persons not complying with social norms The victims of disasters.

Referring to the number of social problems, the central and local government convinces the community and private sectors that they also have the right and responsabilities in handling social welfare problems around their environment. The policies of the Ministry of Social Affairs in overcoming social welfare problems are as follows: Increasing the broadening and the distributing of social welfare services Increasing professional social services Advancing social service management Increasing and advancing community participations in running social welfare services Supporting the implementation of the decentralization policy.

The social welfare service system in handling the social welfare problem are coordinated by the central and local government and also involving non government organizations. Some forums of social welfare services institution also contribute in coordinating various social welfare programs in the community. These forums become a medium to inform and create a commitment with the social welfare programs from the community and the government. In running the programs, the central and local government are able to employ some social worker staff, so that, the social welfare programs are designed and implemented by considering social work perspectives. In solving the social welfare problems, there are several social work approaches inside the program intervention. Generally, the macro practice is used by the practitioners of the government or non government organizations in implementing community programs, and this method is appropriate with the Indonesian social context. In their practice, the social workers frequently use this method called in different expressions such as the empowerment, community based and capacity bulding terms, etc. For social workers work in social services agencies, they mostly employ individual and group approaches toward the clients. In short, the method of intervention used are community based and center based in handling of social welfare problems.

What Goes Wrong?

Looking at this gloomy portrait of development, the question is: Does it mean that since its independence 64 years ago, Indonesia did not make any progress? The answer is no. there are some indicators that show Indonesia`s progress. The problem is: the progress is relatively slow and other countries make faster progress. In the last decade, economic liberalization and political democratization have made major improvement. The economic system is now witnessing the shift from overregulated economy to market economy, and the political system has also shifted from centralistic to decentralistic. Bank Indonesia has become more independent, the president is directly elected, the House of Representatives is stronger, regional authonomy has increased (some regions even have different system from the national system). These are some examples of the progress. However, the progress of other countries is faster than Indonesia`s. in 1984, Indonesia`s export was US$ 4 billion, while China`s export was only US$ 3 billion. But 20 years later, China`s export has reached US$ 700 billion, while Indonesia`s export was only around US$ 70 billion. World Investment Report 2006 showed that foreign direct to China in 2004 reached US$ 60.6 billion, while in Indonesia it showed negative number. It means that more investors withdrew the investment from Indonesia. Uncertainty of law, unstable security, and unfavorable fiscal policy which was not conductive made Indonesia uninteresting for investment at that certain time. In short and with reference to the Indonesia`s development strategy and the issues of social welfare development, there is a number of factors explaining why the country still faces serious and multifaceted social problems. Five issues are worth to be highlithed: The mainstream approach of national development in Indonesia relies heavily on economic growth and foreign debt within the context of neoliberalism policy
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interventions. While it lack of strategies that have direct impacts on poverty, unemployment and inequality, the economy is often vulnerable due to debt trap and global crisis. After it had been practiced for more than 30 years, the approach failed to eradicate poverty. It only caused bubble gum economy and nurtured shaky conglomeration, corruption, collusion and nepotism, social injustice which generated 25% of very rich people exceeding the average of Malaysian rich people. Some even become world-class jet-sets with trillions of rupiah of wealth (Husodo, 2006; Suharto, 2008). Poverty alleviation programs are dominated by project-oriented interventions employing ad-hoc, partial and residual methods. The programs tend to be curative and rehabilitative in nature and lack of preventive measures. Such poverty reduction programs as Family Hope Program (Program Keluarga Harapan/PKH), Rice for the Poor (Beras Miskin/Raskin), and National Program of Community Empowerment (Program Nasional Pemberdayaan Masyarakat/PNPM) are targeted to the poor. This approach cannot prevent people from becoming poor since beneficiaries should be poor first before receiving the anti-poverty programs. State commitment and obligation toward the fulfillment of citizen`s social rights are low. Social expenditure ratios in Indonesia are below 2% of national GDP, far below the 4.8% average for Asian countries and the 20.5% for 30 OECD countries. However, this country is considered under-spending in key sectors such as infrastructure and health. Decentralization tends to limit the responsibility and capacity of local government in dealing with social problems. When receiving the allocation of power from central government, many local governments, especially at district level (kabupaten/kota), are applying the principle of functions follow money rather than money follow functions. As a result, the stronger power of local governments tend to be exercised to increasing local revenues (PAD) rather than providing social services to the residents.

Future Direction of Social Work

In Indonesian context, the main social welfare problems are poverty and disasters, so that, the social work methods and techniques which are suitable for these problems become an important factor in eradicating the problems. Social welfare policies should be put integrativelly within a broader set of policies on macroeconomic development, employment programs, and education and health policies and be established to reduce risks and deprivation as well as to encourage growth with equity and sustainability. The relationship between social welfare and economic development should not be seen as a trade-off, as there are many ways in which reducing risk and vulnerability serve to increase investment and growth, positive associations which can be maximized (Suharto, 2009).

Conclusions
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Economic development is necessary fo the improvement of quality of life in a country. In order to be equitable and sustainable, economic development should be done fairly and in accordance with the development of social welfare. Social welfare is an important element in social policy strategies for eradicating poverty and reducing multidimensional deprivation. But social welfare is not the only approach of poverty reduction initiatives. In order to have sustainable and effective results, it needs to be implemented in combination with other approaches within the overall context of social-economic development.

References
CBS (Central Board of Statistics) (2009), The Overview of Poverty in Indonesia on March 2009 in FacSheetNo.43/07/Th.XII, July 1st, Jakarta: CBS; Suharto, Edi (2009), Kemiskinan dan Perlindungan Sosial (Poverty and Social Protection), Bandung:Alfabeta; Suharto, Edi (2006), Membangun Masyarakat Memberdayakan Rakyat: Kajian Strategis Pembangunan Kesejahteraan Sosial dan Pekerjaan Sosial (Building Community Empowering People: Strategic Analysis on Social Welfare Development and Social Work),Bandung: RefikaAditama (second edition); MOSA (Ministry of Social Affairs) (2009), Public Expenditure Review for Social Rehabilitation and Services, Jakarta:MOSA.