Indonesia outrage grows after toddlers found tied up at daycare

The discovery of toddlers tied up at a daycare in Yogyakarta has turned a criminal abuse case into a wider indictment of Indonesia’s child-care system. Police said the Little Aresha daycare center was operating without the required licenses, yet more than 100 children had been enrolled there before officers raided the site and found many of them with their hands and feet bound.

Police said the raid took place on April 24, 2026, after a former employee filed a complaint four days earlier. Investigators later named 13 suspects in the case, including child carers and the foundation headmaster connected to the center. Apri Sawitri, who heads child protection at the Yogyakarta police criminal investigation unit, said some of the children were tethered to doors. The alleged victims were between two and six years old, an age group that left parents stunned by how long the abuse may have gone unnoticed.

For Aldewa Anjasmara Halip, the case cut through the ordinary routines of working parenthood. His three-year-old daughter cried hysterically each time she was due to attend daycare, and he initially assumed she simply did not want to go. He later realized she had been traumatized. He and his wife work at nearby malls, a reminder of how dependent urban families are on child care when both adults are in the labor force and options are limited.

The outrage has spread because the daycare was not an isolated bad actor in an otherwise secure system. Indonesia has thousands of child-care centers, but daycare is still relatively new in a country where extended family members have traditionally filled the caregiving role. That shift has outpaced oversight. The Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection has said about 44% of daycare services operate without permits or legal status, while only 39.7% have official operational licenses. University of Gadjah Mada cited ministry data showing just 30.7% of daycare centers nationwide had operational permits, with Yogyakarta City itself listing 37 licensed centers and 33 unlicensed ones.

The Little Aresha center was sealed after the allegations became public, but the broader pressure now falls on regulators to do more than react after harm has already been done. Stronger licensing enforcement, routine monitoring, and clearer safety standards have become urgent in a sector that many families rely on simply to keep working. This case has exposed a fragile bargain: parents need affordable care, but without tighter state oversight, too many children are left exposed to risks no family should have to imagine.