Mental Health Disorders Trigger Sexual Violence, Minister Of PPPA: Need Custody Of Family Strengthening

JAKARTA - Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection (PPPA) Arifatul Choiri Fauzi revealed that the lack of mental health was considered as one of the triggers for cases of sexual violence that occurred in a number of regions in Indonesia.

"Sexual violence is happening everywhere. Because actually, the mental health of our society is in a very worrying position," he said after visiting the South Sulawesi DPPPA UPTD Office in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Friday.

In order to suppress the repeated sexual violence, he said, the Ministry of PPPA then thought about what steps were right in minimizing similar incidents by presenting priority programs.

"Therefore, one of the solutions we offer is a foster pattern of strengthening in family within a family. We go through priority programs, one of which is space with Indonesia," he told reporters.

He explained that the joint space program with Indonesia based on this story can be done in various ways, of course, collaboration with various ministries and institutions to solve problems experienced by the community, one of which is about sexual violence.

According to Arifatul Fauzi, sexual violence that has been rampant lately has become a common concern, so of course it must be resolved together. Because, problems like this are resolved by the Ministry of PPPA itself.

"We will join hands with various parties, what we can collaborate on to strengthen families at the grassroot level (lower-class society)," he suggested.

In addition, another effort is to cooperate with the Ministry of Higher Education (Kemendikti) to jointly oversee the orientation period of studies and campus or campus introductions and provide insights provision related to the prevention of sexual violence.

"With the Ministry of Education, we will go down together on the suspects on several campuses, we will convey about preventing sexual violence against women in educational facilities and the world of education," said Arifatul.

"We will chat with students for prevention, what exactly is in this version of students' children. Maybe they don't understand that actually a rather sensitive action has led to violence. So, we have to provide knowledge," he said again.

Of the various cases of sexual violence, he said, many of them occurred and were carried out by those closest to them, including from within their own families because they were not sincere in loving and giving love to their children. Mental health crisis is also the cause.

"Now many perpetrators of violence are the closest people. So I said it was mental health. Apart from parenting, the most important thing is religious education for our children, for families.

"I believe that if the religious foundation is strong, it might minimize doing things that are not desirable," he stressed.

Meanwhile, the Head of the UPTD DPPPA of the South Sulawesi Provincial Government Andi Rahmi Adikarini said the arrival of the Minister of PPPA to have a dialogue on the handling of cases of sexual violence and cases of women and children and the number of cases handled until May 2025.

"The districts with the most violence are Gowa and Jeneponto regencies as well as several other regencies. The handling data for 2024 is 292 cases. From 2025 to May there were 112 cases. This is an increase, because only the second quarter, not yet the third semester has reached 112 cases," said Andi Rahmi.