High Divorce Rates Cause Fatherless Phenomenon In Indonesia, Because Of That The Marriage Law Needs To Be Revised

Minister of Religion (Menag) Nasaruddin Umar proposed a revision of the Marriage Law. The high divorce rate in Indonesia threatens family resilience.

Minister of Religion Nasaruddin Umar's proposal regarding the revision of Law Number 1 of 1974 concerning Marriage is motivated by concerns about the high divorce rate in Indonesia.

According to him, this phenomenon indicates that household resilience requires more serious attention from the state.

The revised proposal was made at the National Working Meeting (Rakernas) of the Advisory, Development and Marriage Preservation Agency (BP4) 2025 in Jakarta. The Minister of Religion proposed the addition of a special chapter that explicitly regulates the preservation of marriage.

"Divorces often give birth to new poor people. The first victim is a wife, then a child. Therefore, the state needs to be present not only in passing it, but also in maintaining the continuity of marriage," said Minister of Religion Nasaruddin Umar, in a press statement.

The divorce rate in Indonesia is of concern to the Ministry of Religion because the numbers continue to increase from year to year. In 2024, the Supreme Court's Religious Court (Badilag) recorded 446,359 divorce cases.

This number increased compared to the previous year. In 2023, the divorce rate was 463,654 cases, then there were 516,344 cases in 2022, and 447,743 cases in 2021.

The factors that cause various kinds, ranging from economic problems, infidelity, to continuous quarrels.

Meanwhile, the number of marriages recorded by the Directorate General of Islamic Guidance at the Ministry of Religion in 2024 is 1,478,424. This figure is also known to have decreased drastically from the previous year, of which in 2023 there were 1,577,493 people who had married.

Divorce has had a number of impacts, both on couples who experience and children. Child victims of divorce can have an impact on emotional instability, such as anxiety and depression.

In addition, divorce children can also reduce children's achievements at school, feel inferior, temperamental, or prolonged disappointment with their parents.

"However, this impact is not always negative if parents remain committed to working together in raising children," said clinical psychologist Kasandra Putranto to VOI.

The desire of the Minister of Religion Nasruddin Umar to play an active role in preventing divorce in Indonesia cannot be underestimated. Indeed, the family is the main choice of supporting the strength of a nation. If the number of divorced families continues to increase, then the pillars that support the nation's strength will be more fragile.

That's because the increasing number of divorce cases can make the quality of life of the nation's children worse. In divorce, children are always the main victims. As previously mentioned, parental divorce can interfere with children's parenting.

University of Mulawarman sociologist Saroso Hamung Pranoto said, the continued increase in the divorce rate in the long term could reduce Indonesia's human quality. That's because the younger generation who should be able to grow optimally has the potential to become a generation that is psychologically and physically unhealthy.

Meanwhile, clinical psychologist for children and adolescents from the Applied Psychology Institute of the University of Indonesia, Vera Itabiliana, S.Ps, said that one of the fatherless phenomena or children's conditions lacked the presence and role of the father both physically and mentally was also caused by divorce.

Regarding the bad effects of divorce, Vera emphasized that the presence of a father in a child's life can affect children's way of thinking and behavior when facing something.

When parents divorce, this presence can prevent children from taking various actions that should be watched out for, such as changing attitudes, namely being too emotional, becoming rebels who do not want to go to school or do other extreme things.

For this reason, even though there has been a divorce, a father must still not forget his role as family leader. Lowering their respective egos so that children do not feel placed in a squeezed state in both parties' problems.

To prevent children from experiencing fatherless or feeling neglected after the divorce, Vera advised parents to continue to guarantee love for their children. Because, according to him, every action taken by parents can affect all aspects of children's lives in the future.

"Be in regular communication with children, for example, still coming to school to watch various children's activities, for example classroom performances or others," said Vera.

"Fathers still have to have regular time to meet and communicate with children so that children feel they have a meaning for their father," he added.