A Total Of 71 Thousand Indonesian Women Choose Childfree, This Is Veronica Tan's Reaction

Deputy Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection (PPPA) Indonesia, Veronica Tan (VOI/Adelia)

JAKARTA - Deputy Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection (PPPA) Indonesia, Veronica Tan, gave a response regarding 71,000 Indonesian women aged fertile (15-49 years) not wanting to have children know childfree.

This news was originally revealed from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) which released the data in a 2023 report entitled 'Searching Childfree Traces in Indonesia'.

BPS analyzes the childfree phenomenon in Indonesia from a external perspective using data from the National Socio-Economic Survey (SUSENAS). Women of fertile age who are married, but have never given birth and do not use family planning are the focus of this survey.

As a result, 71,000 women chose childfree. This case is more common in Java with the dominance of domicile in DKI Jakarta, West Java to Banten. Their choice is childfree, not only economic, but personal, social, health reasons.

Veronica Tan mentions the phenomenon of Indonesian women choosing childfree, because they are at the level of higher education and have seen many cases in the household.

"Women choose not to have children. So for women who have been educated, they understand that children become a burden if we don't give the best quality," said Veronica Tan, when met at the Old City Post Office, Jakarta on Thursday, November 14, 2024.

Women with childfree choices feel unable to give the best for their children. Therefore, many Indonesian women are not ready to have children.

"Finally they chose, I just couldn't give my quality well, why do I have children," he said.

However, women who have no education and have no education about marriage, they will choose early marriage. Moreover, early marriage is carried out before the age of 19 and does not know its long-term effects.

Until finally, women who do not have education about marriage have many children. This triggers them to face many problems. The main problem is economic factors.

"Besides that, it is different if women are not educated, women who are not educated, it will happen early marriage," he said.

"Not even though he is 19 years old, he is already married, but without knowing the long term he has children. Then sometimes because the husband is not allowed to use family planning, in the end there are a lot of women who have not been educated, they have many children," he continued.

According to him, this incident made women depressed and stressed. Until finally, they had mental health problems.

"And this makes the burden and mental health finally." he concluded.