Economic Crisis and the Reconfiguration of Child and Women Protection: An Islamic Perspective on Street Buskers along the Northern Coastal of Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Economic crises extend beyond macroeconomic instability by fundamentally reshaping structural conditions that determine vulnerability, livelihoods, and access to protection among marginalized populations. Although previous studies have examined poverty and informal employment, limited attention has been given to how prolonged economic crises transform the protection experiences of children and women engaged in street busking, particularly from an Islamic social protection perspective. This qualitative study investigates the changing dynamics of child and women’s protection along the Northern Coastal (Pantura) of Java, Indonesia, through the analytical framework of Islamic social justice and maqāṣid al-sharīʿah. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, participant observation, focus group discussions, and document analysis involving child and female street buskers, parents, social workers, religious leaders, community representatives, and government officials. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis, iterative coding, constant comparison, and methodological triangulation. Findings indicate that persistent economic hardship intensifies children’s involvement in hazardous informal work, reinforces women’s dependence on precarious livelihoods, and exacerbates labour exploitation, gender-based violence, educational exclusion, and psychosocial distress. These conditions undermine the Islamic objectives of protecting life (ḥifẓ al-nafs), human dignity, family, and future generations. The study concludes that effective protection requires integrated rights-based governance strengthened by Islamic values of social justice, compassion, and takāful ijtimāʿī through coordinated, gender-responsive, and community-based social protection systems.