KIDS’ VOICE

Every year since 2006, Local Government of Tulungagung in commemorating Hari Anak Nasional (National Children’s day) hold a preliminary event called Kumpul Bocah (CHildren Gathering to discuss recommendations). Below are recommendations they successfully formulate not only for Parents, Governments but also for their peer in 2010.

Recommendations for Peer :

1)  Mengajak teman-teman untuk selalu taat beribadah serta menghormati orang tua dan guru ; 2) Sesama teman harus saling menghargai, menyayangi sehingga tidak melakukan kekerasan  da n diskriminasi kepada teman. Mari hentikan MOS dengan kekerasan dan hentikan kearoganan genk di kalangan anak-anak; 3) Mari Senantiasa belajar dan membiasakan untuk berlaku jujur dan berakhlak mulia.

Recommendations for Parents :

1) Mengharapkan orang tua sebagai tempat curhat bagi anak ; 2) Menghargai kasih sayang dan perhatian kepada anak untuk menghadapi pengaruh lingkungan yang buruk, tetapi mohon tidak dengan kekangan dan pemaksaan; 3) Tetap mengharapkan suri tauladan agar kita mampu berakhlak mulia.

Recommendations for Government :

1) Memberikan penghargaan terhadap keberadaan Taman Kusuma Wicitra sebagai ruang hijau dan tempat bermain anak dan selanjutnya berharap adanya taman serupa di beberapa tempat yang dapat dijangkau oleh seluruh anak di Kabupaten Tulungagung ; 2)Memohon adanya telepon sahabat anak sebagai Call Center bagi anak ; 3) Membersihkan kawasan dekat sekolah dan tempat bermain anak dari keberadaan iklan rokok ; 4) Meningkatkan dukungan kegiatan pelestarian permainan tradisional, budaya daerah dan keagamaan bagi anak-anak ; 5) Memberikan dukungan bagi anak TKI agar tidak terlantar, kekurangan kasih sayang dan terjerumus pada pergaulan yang salah.

This means that our district has step by step involved children in the decision making process. Especially when children has been able to form Children Representative (Dewan Perwakilan Anak – DPA) it shows that children now has more power to contribute to policy making in Tulungagung. DPA also promotes certain values when dealing with their peer such as honesty, participation, stop violence, and good morality. We will discuss more on  how cities suppose to look like and be more friendly to children.

CHeers!

Overview

For those who haven’t heard about Tulungagung District, hereby I will give you some introduction about our district. Some administrative and statistic informations might attract your interest. Geographically Tulungagung located on 111,43 degrees – 112.07  degrees east longitude and 7.51degrees – 8.18 degrees south latitude, with an area of ​​1.055.65 Km2.

Kabupaten Tulungagung is one of the 38 districts in East Java Province which located at the south part. It borders with Kediri in the North, Trenggalek in the West, Blitar in the East and Indonesian Ocean at the South. Its total area is 1.150,41 km² and is divided into 19 sub-district/Kecamatan,  271 villages/Desa, 1.830 RW and 6.239 RT /Neighborhood.

Tulungagung district has three types of land, they are: high land, middle and low land. High land is an area about 700m above the sea level that includes 3 villages. Middle land is located in an area about 500m to 700m in the sea level that includes 11 villages. Meanwhile the rest of 257 villages located in low land which placed 500m under the sea level. The dispersed villages results in some consequences especially in economic and education issues.

South Tulungagung is coastal and limestone hill, bare of vegetation and unsuitable for agriculture. However, this south part of Tulungagung especially at hilly area is rich of minerals and mining like limestone, marble, onyx, etc. Meanwhile, our coastal is also rich of marine resources. Centre of Tulungagung is a lowland and generally it is quite fertile with good irrigation system. Furthermore, Northern  Tulungagung is also hilly and part of Wilis Mountain. This part of area is less fertile  and some lowlands trajectories with Brantas river and sand mining is the main feature.

Demography, Social , Economic and other Indicators

According to Tulungagung Within Numbers (Tulungagung Dalam Angka) in 2009, our Population reaches 1.030.926 people (514.536 men and 516.390 women) with density rate is about 896 people/km². On Education side, children should finish compulsory education program that requires every child finish junior high school and now under new system lowest education would be senior high school. We also have playgroup for children age 2-4 yo and kindergarten for 4-7 yo. There are around 578 kindergarten with 26.939 students. Meanwhile there is 768 elementary schools with students around 15.000. There is 108 Junior high school (private and public) with number of students is about 46.000. Meanwhile number of Senior High School is around 13.500 study at about 58 senior high.

Most of people in Tulungagung are working in manufacturing industries including food and beverages, tobacco, textile, wood, cement, basic metals industries and others. Agriculture and fisheries are also important since they are able to employ most of workers who live in villages and people who lived close to the sea. However, source of income for our local economy dominantly comes from trade, hotel and restaurant which contributes 31,63% to Gross Rational Domestic Product (PDRB) followed by manufacture industry (17,45%) and agriculture (17,16%) in 2008.

Tulungagung local own-resources revenue (PAD) consistently increases every year. In 2009 we received around 63,7 billion rupiahs revenue that comes from local tax, retribution, investment of local assets and other legal local revenue. Overall local revenue also coming from intergovernmental fiscal transfers that consist of shared revenue from taxes and natural resources, the General Allocation Fund (DAU), Special Allocation Fund (DAK), Adjustment Fund and other revenue. Tulungagung local revenues are spent for paying both the employees as well as local development in all sectors such as education, health, women empowerment, social, environmental preservation, regional spatial planning, culture, sports, investment and other local expenditures.

Some pictures of events :

Hari Jadi Kabupaten Tulungagung

In general that is Tulungagung District. More infos can be found at : http://www.tulungagung.go.id/