Village Head In Gorontalo Asked To Participate In Preventing Early Marriage

JAKARTA - Member of Commission I of the North Gorontalo Regional House of Representatives (DPRD), Gorontalo Province Haris Tuina requested that village heads (kades) also prevent early marriage, by avoiding attending weddings that marry minors.

"The high number of early marriages in the area is in accordance with information from the local Office of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection," said Haris in Gorontalo, Friday, which is quite concerning. So it needs to be addressed firmly.

"We should not legalize early marriage, which clearly has a detrimental impact on the perpetrators, especially girls," said Haris quoting Antara.

Education to the public needs to be carried out massively in all villages.

"One of them is firmly not attending celebrations that marry minors, in addition to socializing the dangers of early marriage," said Haris, who has also served as village head.

He reminded technical implementers in the field, such as penghulu, imams and village government officials, to be more careful in responding to these problems.

It is mandatory to pay attention to marriage data so that it can prevent child marriage under the age of 19 because it is against the Child Protection Act.

"All stakeholders need to work together massively in order to prevent early marriage so that people slowly but can definitely understand that marrying children under the age of 19 is an act that violates the law," he said.

According to him, omission should not occur, especially if it is found that there is direct involvement of parties who have the authority, such as the village head as the highest leader in the village government.

"If there is a letter of application or marriage invitation by a minor or 19 years of age is less than one day old, so as not to respond or even get involved in it," said Haris.

According to his experience while serving as village head, he said that if a minor is found urgent to marry (pregnancy accidents outside of marriage), all must be resolved legally.

"Considering that marrying a minor, especially being a victim of sexual violence is not actually the best solution," he said.

Regulations about marriage need to be distributed to the public. Especially mature age or ready to get married, coaching related to the preparation of forming a new household, sex education, and understanding of healthy relationships, especially regarding child protection programs

This is important to convey to the public to all corners of this area.

"The heavy and important homework that we need to do together is to provide education about healthy association, the importance of parental supervision of children's whereabouts, as well as deep knowledge of religion as a strong foundation for the younger generation," he said.