Jakarta: Indonesia aims to shut down all of the country’s red-light districts by 2019 in a bid to eradicate prostitution in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, the Jakarta Post said late Tuesday quoting the social affairs minister.
The government has already closed 68 red-light districts, while another 100 would be closed down within three years, said Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa.
“We believe that red-light districts will affect children who live nearby negatively,” he told AFP.
“Prostitution can never be erased from the Earth but we must try to stop it corrupting our youth.”
The move comes after a weeks-long push to close down one of the capital’s most notorious red-light districts, called Kalijodo, and replace the illegal brothels and bars with parks.
Jakarta authorities decided to take action after a fatal car accident early this month blamed on a man who had been drinking in the riverside shanty.
But the plan has angered residents, as many are set to be evicted and see their houses demolished in the coming days, Bangkok Post reported.
Despite being illegal, prostitution is rampant in most major Indonesian cities.
Jakarta’s governor has started closing down a major prostitution hub in the northern part of the capital, with evictions planned for Sunday.
In 2014, the mayor of Indonesia’s second-largest city of Surabaya shutdown what was believed to be Southeast Asia’s biggest red-light district.