For years, Noorman had entrusted his two young children to Little Aresha, a daycare centre near his home in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta which advertises its well-equipped facilities and variety of play activities.

So it came as a shock last Friday when the civil servant got a frantic phone call from a friend. Police were raiding the daycare centre, his friend said, go pick up your children right now.

"We were then shown a video of the raid, showing the children with their hands and feet tied up, with no clothes and only wearing diapers," Noorman told BBC Indonesian.

The raid lifted the lid on an alleged culture of abuse within the walls of the centre, which authorities say have involved dozens of children under its care, in a case that has gripped the nation.

The Yogyakarta police have accused 13 people - including the centre's principal, the head of the Little Aresha Foundation and its caregivers - of multiple child protection offences.

The investigation has also prompted further scrutiny of the country's childcare centres, many of which authorities say are not properly licensed.

How it came to light

The raid at Little Aresha came after a former employee lodged a police report claiming that children had suffered inhumane treatment at the centre.

Police, who raided the centre last Friday, said they found evidence of the alleged mistreatment: children whose hands and feet were tied, or who had injuries.

Police also found several tiny rooms measuring about 3m (10ft) wide, each crammed with as many as 20 children, said Rizki Adrian, head of the Yogyakarta police criminal investigation unit.

Out of the 103 children enrolled in the daycare, at least 53 are believed to be victims of physical abuse or neglect, Rizki said. He added that the majority of the victims were under two years old.

On Saturday, police detained and questioned around 30 people from the childcare centre. Thirteen of them have since been arrested and accused of mistreatment and neglect.

Authorities have confirmed that Little Aresha did not have an operating permit.

Little Aresha, which has been closed since the raid, has not publicly responded to the investigation.

The Yogyakarta government has called for the alleged victims to receive thorough psychological and physical assessments.

Trauma healing services will also be available to the parents of victims, authorities said.

Anger and guilt

It has been a nightmare discovery for parents like Noorman, who enrolled his daughter there in 2022 when she was two years old.

"The facilities offered include air-conditioned rooms, beds, lunch, and a variety of play activities," Noorman said. "That's why we were drawn to Little Aresha because, frankly, the branding is excellent."

He added that the woman who headed the foundation behind the childcare was very "gentle and communicative".

In 2024, when his son turned three months old, Noorman enrolled him in the centre too.

"Behind all this, we didn't expect that the children at the daycare would be treated so poorly," Noorman said.

Noorman did have his suspicions: once, he spotted a cut on his daughter's chin and bruises on her hands. But when he asked the centre about the injuries, the staff told him that the child had hurt herself at home, not at the centre.

Budiyanto, another parent who started sending his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter to Little Aresha last year, also noticed cuts, bruises and bumps on her forehead and cheek.

The centre's staff said the child had been bitten by other children - an explanation he accepted at the time. "We felt it was normal, as small children might fight," he said.

But it was not just the mysterious injuries that had struck parents as odd.

It also seemed to Noorman that his children were perpetually hungry. Despite the lunches that he packed for his children every day, they were always asking for food at home. His young son also struggled to gain weight.

"Why is it that every day when he gets home, he always complains that he's still hungry, asking for food, a drink, milk," Noorman said. "It turns out we didn't notice the signs that something was wrong."

During a recent check-up, Noorman said his son was diagnosed with pneumonia.

Noorman and his wife now hope the centre will be thoroughly investigated, and the maximum punishment meted out to the alleged abusers.

"It's inhumane. We've been entrusting him to the centre," Noorman said. "Not only my own child, but there were dozens of toddlers who were treated in such inhumane ways."

Some parents are also grappling with guilt over their choice to enroll their children at Little Aresha.

This was captured in a recent TikTok video posted by Erika Rismay, whose daughter had been attending Little Aresha.

Her daughter - whose face was obscured by a crying emoji in the video - recounted how her teachers in school had tied her hands and feet and covered her mouth.

"Why was your mouth covered?" Erika asked her child in the video, which has been viewed more than 300,000 times.

"So I wouldn't cry. So Mummy wouldn't hear me crying," the young girl replied.

"Oh Allah, my child, forgive me," Erika wrote in video's caption. "No wonder every day when you left for school you always cried hysterically, and when you came home you were silent and spaced out, like you had been hypnotised."

'Truly unforgiveable'

The alleged abuse at Little Aresha has unleashed a fresh wave of public anger in Indonesia. Many are calling for tighter oversight in childcare facilities.

It is not the first time Indonesia has been rocked by allegations of child abuse at the very institutions meant to care for them.

In 2024, another daycare centre in Depok city, south of Jakarta, came under scrutiny after viral security camera footage apparently showed two toddlers being mistreated by a woman.

A subsequent probe by the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) found that out of more than 100 daycare centres in the city, fewer than 20% were licensed.

According to KPAI, there are around 3,000 daycare centres around Indonesia, many of which are unlicensed, such as Little Aresha.

Yogyakarta mayor Hasto Wardoyo has vowed to inspect the rest of the city's childcare centres and raise public awareness about choosing verified childcare services.

On Sunday, a lawmaker urged a full investigation into Little Aresha, telling local media that the allegations were "truly unforgivable".

"Daycare centres should be required to install security cameras that parents can monitor from their phones at all times, so things like this don't happen again," reads one comment on Facebook.

"You already know that working with kids means dealing with tantrums - they don't always understand or listen when you talk to them," another person wrote on Facebook, in a comment addressing the staff of Little Aresha.

"But that's the job you chose. If you can't handle how kids naturally act, then don't work there." (BBC)

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