Government Targets Child Marriage Rate To Drop To 8.74 Percent

Kasubdit Bina Keluarga Sakinah Kementerian Agama (Kemenag) Agus Suryo Suripto. (Between)

"The government targets the child marriage rate to decrease to 8.74 percent by 2024 and 6.94 percent by 2030," said Head of Sub-Directorate for Family Development Sakinah Ministry of Religion (Kemenag) Agus Suryo Suripto.

"We are targeting the child marriage rate to decrease to 8.74 percent by 2024 and 6.94 percent by 2030," he said, quoted from Antara, Sunday.

To achieve this target, he continued, the Ministry of Religion has a School Age Guidance Program (BRUS) to provide understanding of family education for teenagers.

"This BRUS program is a small action, but we hope it will have a major impact on the progress of the nation. Small action for big impacts, important contribution to Indonesia's progress," he said.

According to him, child marriage is one of the serious problems that can have a negative impact on children's health, education, and welfare. Child marriage can also cause tengkes (stunting), dropping out of school, and domestic violence.

Suryo hopes that the BRUS Program can also provide understanding to teenagers about the importance of delaying the age of marriage and maintaining reproductive health. "BRUS can also be a means to improve the quality of the sakinah family," he said.

According to data on child marriage from the National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas) BPS, the number of child marriages in Indonesia is quite high, reaching 1.2 million cases. Of this number, the proportion of women aged 20-24 years who were married before the age of 18 was 11.21 percent of the total number of children.

This means, he said, about 1 in 9 women aged 20-24 years married at the age of their children. This number is in contrast to men, one in 100 men aged 20-24 years married at the age of their children.

The National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) dismissed the notion that early marriage is better than committing adultery. So far, there are still some people who think that rather than adultery, it is better to marry.

"We have KB extensions and KB cadres in the field, activity groups such as the Bina Keluarga Balita (BKB) and the Bina Keluarga Remaja (BKR) will be the spearhead to convey family development messages and instill eight family functions," said Deputy for Prosperous Family and Family Empowerment of BKKBN Nopian.

According to him, to avoid early marriage and free sex, it is more effective and strategic to prevent it from upstream, so that all components of society including the media also have an important role to play in disseminating various risks that will arise from early marriage.