Indonesia steps up campaign against prostitution, plans to close all red-light districts by 2019

Indonesia plans to close all red-light districts in the country by 2019, an official said on Wednesday, stepping up a campaign against prostitution after a controversial push to clear up a brothel area of Jakarta.

The government will instruct local authorities to shut down an estimated 100 red-light districts across the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, said Sonny Manalu, a senior official at the social affairs ministry.

“We believe that red-light districts will affect children who live nearby negatively,” he told said.

“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.