Karang Taruna was founded on 26 September 1960 in Kampung Melayu, Jakarta, as a platform for young people to contribute to their communities. It has since grown into a fixture of Indonesian local life, with chapters in tens of thousands of desa and kelurahan across the archipelago.
The Ministry of Social Affairs regulates the organization — most recently through Regulation No. 25 of 2019 — defining it as a non-partisan social body whose members are local youth, broadly between the ages of 13 and 45. Chapters elect their leaders through member assemblies and coordinate upward through subdistrict, city, provincial, and national tiers.