The value of children among tea estate workers' families

This case study conducted in a village of Cibodas - Cikajang, in December 1977 - February 1978, obtained data on the value of children in a special type of Sundanese agricultural society, the estate worker community. The village is situated in the regency of Garut, one of the regencies under the authority of the West Java Government. Eighty per cent of the economically active population in this village were directly involved in agricultural activities and 74 per cent of them were agricultural workers. The social character of the community was determined on one hand by the traditional and religious values and on the other hand by the work conditions of the estate. There have been some previous studies on the value of children in Indonesian societies but none of them specifically on the peasant Sundanese society and no special information has ever been obtained on the estate worker community. This study attempts to fill some of the gaps in existing knowledge on the value of children in peasant society who are the majority of the Indonesian population. The Cibodas - Cikajang case study has succeeded in finding the socio-cultural background behind the attitude of the community towards their children, such as, children's socialization, family size, sex preferences, motivation of having children, and limitation of the number of children. In regard to the positive and negative values of children, the advantages and disadvantages of having many children, the economic benefits and economic costs of children, and various factors affecting positive and negative values were examined. The economic condition of the family and work condition were also studied to see their influence on the costs of children and the perception of children's work in the future.