Ministry Of Religion: 34.6 Million Pairs In Indonesia Don't Have Marriage Books

Illustration of a card or marriage book. (Antanews)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Religion (Kemenag) reported that 34.6 million couples in Indonesia do not have marriage books based on the 2021 Population and Civil Registration Data (Dukcapil).

"The husband and wife are married, but do not yet have a marriage certificate. Now there may be many problems they face. We suspect there are economic and literacy factors," said Director General of Islamic Community Guidance (Bimas) of the Ministry of Religion Abu Rokhmad in Jakarta, Friday, June 20, as reported by Antara.

Abu Rokhmad said that marriage without official records at the Office of Religious Affairs (KUA) has many risks, especially for women and children.

He gave an example when there is a divorce, the one who will be harmed is the woman because they cannot demand the rights that should be given by their husband.

In addition, he continued, Religious Courts cannot process divorce if marriage is not registered. The same goes for children who will become victims.

"Later on regarding children, especially now children are needed a birth certificate. The issuance of birth certificates is always based on marriage books," said Abu Rokhmad.

On the other hand, she also highlighted the number of marriages recorded every year consistently falling. In 2020 the number of marriages is more than 2 million. However, in 2024 the number of marriages recorded is only 1.47 million people.

Meanwhile, if you pay attention to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), he said, the marriage age between the ages of 20-35 years there are 66-70 million marriage rates.

"But 1.5 million married people are recorded. Then where are the others. This is a message we want to convey to the public, by recording the same marriage as protecting the family," he said.

In responding to the high number of couples who do not have a marriage book, the Ministry of Religion will hold a Marriage Registration Awareness Movement which will be part of the celebration of 1 Muharam 1447 Hijri.

The Marriage Listing Movement will be held at Car Free Day (CFD) Jakarta on Sunday 6 July 2025 with public figure Habib Jafar Al Hadar.

"We all know that if there is a divorce, then all of them will be wives or ex-wife, and especially children. So we are trying to take care of a whole family, sakinah, mawadah, and warrahmah," he said.