Visiting Central Lombok, Minister Of Health Calls Children's Age Marriage Picu Babies Born Kerdil

JAKARTA - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin reminded parents not to marry children too young, because it can cause babies to be born dwarfs or stunted.

"Early marriage has rules. If you get married too young, it is likely that stunting is high," he said during a working visit in Central Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, Wednesday, May 28.

Budi said that brides who are already married at an age are too young so they don't rush to have children so that the generation born in sufficient age does not experience stunt growth.

"If they are stunted, their intellectuality will decrease, it's a pity that a few decades later they will not be able to live as good as their other friends," he said.

Law Number: 16 of 2019 concerning amendments to Law Number: 1 of 1947 related to marriage confirms that the minimum age limit for marriage is 19 years for brides and grooms.

Child marriage is prohibited by regulations because it has the opportunity to increase the risk of pregnancy complications due to immature reproductive organs, physical and psychological health problems, and causes problems in the socio-economic sector.

Head of the Family Empowerment and Welfare Mobilization Team (PKK) of West Nusa Tenggara Province, Sinta Agata Soedjoko Iqbal said, the phenomenon of child marriage must be handled from various sectors, both women's organizations, educators, religious leaders, to traditional leaders.

"We will make a joint movement because basically everything must be resolved massively," said the wife of the NTB governor.

The case of child marriage that occurred in Central Lombok is in the spotlight. The married couple married at a young age, namely a 15-year-old woman and a 16-year-old man.

The marriage was prevented by the local village government, both from the bride and groom. However, the families of both parties still insisted on getting married to them.

West Nusa Tenggara already has Regional Regulation Number: 5 of 2021 which regulates the prevention of child marriage. The regulation does not explicitly regulate the imposition of sanctions on early marriage actors or sanctions on people involved in the early marriage process.

The gap in the absence of sanctions has finally made cases of child marriage in West Nusa Tenggara relatively high, especially on the island of Lombok.

Referring to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) from 2021 to 2024, West Nusa Tenggara always recorded the highest number of child marriages nationally.

The percentage of women before the age of 18 who married in 2021 reached 16.59 percent, in 2022 it was 16.23 percent, and reached the highest peak of 17.32 percent in 2023. Meanwhile, in 2024 it decreased slightly to 14.96 percent.