REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SURABAYA -- The Surabaya city government has appealed to the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) to help address the issue of children falling victims to what it termed as "the gloomy effect" of the red-light district.

"This is homework for all of us. Please help us. We must save them. Mothers must also be active in their efforts," Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini stated while inaugurating the executive board of the MUI chapter in the city on Wednesday (11/3).

If this issue is not promptly handled, it is feared that such children could likely spread sexually transmitted diseases to their friends, she pointed out.

Therefore, she emphasized that they should be immediately saved from this crisis or else they might face a gloomy future.

The local government had shut down a red-light district in the city. However, when a team of officers from the city government, public order agency, and police raided the former site of the red-light district, they found several children still reeling under the impact of the red-light district, she remarked.

She noted that under-aged children had become addicted to drugs and sex. Most of them were not natives of Surabaya but hailed from other regions.

The mayor believed that the presence of a red-light district in the city would lead to an increase in the number of children becoming addicted to sex and drugs, and therefore, she decided to shut it down.

"We were resolved to shut it down because we believed that many children would become addicted to sex. And that turned out to be true. Even children with high level of sex addiction had to be handled by psychiatrists after psychologists gave up," she added.

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