Suicide Over School Supplies Rocks Indonesia (Worthy News Focus)

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent

KUPANG, INDONESIA (Worthy News) – A provincial leader in eastern Indonesia on Wednesday acknowledged deep government failures after a 10-year-old boy apparently took his own life when his family could not afford a pen and a notebook he needed for school.

“We failed to detect and find a solution for this child,” said Emanuel Melkiades Laka Lena, governor of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province. His remarks followed the discovery of a fourth-grader, identified only by his initials YBS, who was found hanged in Ngada Regency, according to footage reviewed by Worthy News.

Police investigators confirmed that YBS, entrusted to his 80-year-old grandmother, died Thursday, January 29. The boy was a student at a primary school in the Jerebuu District of Ngada Regency and was found near his grandmother’s hut, authorities said.

Regional police chief and inspector general Rudi Darmoko said preliminary indications point to economic hardship as a factor.

“The preliminary suspicion is that the cause of the suicide was economic issues. The victim had previously asked his mother for money to buy books and pens, but it was not given. His mother said she did not have any money. The family falls into the category of extreme poverty,” Rudi said.

HARDSHIP CITED AS LIKELY DEATH CAUSE

Rudi added that his team deployed psychologists and counselors to the area, where residents saw the boy hanging from a tree.

“We provide assistance both in material support and in psychological mentoring and guidance to the families of the victims. We hope this can help alleviate their difficulties,” he explained.

Governor Laka Lena suggested the case was not only an isolated tragedy but “a hard slap to our humanity and for all that we have worked on.”

“It turns out we have not yet succeeded in ensuring no life is lost in vain due to conditions like this,” he said.

Indonesian media described his remarks as “strikingly personal and collective.” By using “we,” the governor implicated the entire chain of governance, from the provincial system down to the village level.

“This is a failure of the system that exists in the provincial government, Ngada Regency, down to the lower levels,” Laka Lena confessed.

‘INCIDENT HARD SLAP TO HUMANITY’

Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, faces widespread child poverty and educational barriers. According to UNICEF and World Bank data, tens of millions of Indonesian children live below the national poverty line, and many lack access to essential school supplies, adequate nutrition, and basic social support.

A 2025 UNICEF — the United Nations Children’s Fund — report concluded that about 11.8 percent — more than 9 million Indonesian children — live in households below the national poverty line. Additionally, nearly four in ten children (37.4 percent) experience multidimensional deprivation, including lack of education, adequate nutrition, health care, and sanitation, UNICEF said.

Child poverty rates vary widely across the archipelago, with eastern provinces such as NTT among the hardest hit.

The case has resonated beyond NTT, including in tourist haven Bali, several islands west of NTT.

Bali, while known internationally for its tourism economy and predominantly Hindu culture, also has hidden pockets of severe poverty, fractured families, and children whose struggles remain largely invisible to visitors, commentators said.

A Worthy News reporter visiting Bali observed a young child, accompanied by a mother,asking tourists for money late at night — one of numerous such cases on the island.

CHILD POVERTY REMAINS NATIONAL CHALLENGE

“The NTT governor’s admission is a stark reminder that social welfare systems are only as strong as their weakest link and their commitment to proactive detection,” wrote Hey Bali, a Bali-focused online newspaper.

“For Bali’s policymakers and community leaders, it prompts difficult questions: How well do local systems monitor the well-being of children in marginalized families, including those of migrant workers or in an underdeveloped [traditional Balinese neighborhood community unit known as a] banjar? Is support reactive, arriving only after a crisis becomes public, or is it woven into the fabric of community care?” Hey Bali asked.

The NTT governor’s “confession of failure, while painful, sets a necessary precedent for accountability,” the outlet commented. “The true test, for NTT and for every region watching, will be whether this ‘hard slap’ results in a system gentle and strong enough to prevent the next child from falling through the cracks.”

Victoria, a Christian educator whose full name is known to Worthy News, said concerns about Indonesia’s children prompted her to help establish a Christian school for impoverished children in Medan, one of Indonesia’s heavily Muslim areas.

She expressed alarm about the many children who, like YBS, cannot afford school necessities or “lack healthy food,” underscoring how limited access to basic resources affects learning and well-being.

Back in NTT, Police Chief Rudi inaugurated the Directorate of Women’s and Children’s Protection (PPA) and the Eradication of Human Trafficking (PPO) departments within the NTT Regional Police.

In Indonesia, only dozens of such specialized units exist, underscoring broader concerns that Southeast Asia’s largest economy must do more to spread prosperity and safety to those whose lives have just begun.

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