Minister Of PPPA Guarantees That The Government Seriously Handles Children's Early Marriage

Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection (PPPA) I Gusti Ayu Bintang Darmawati

JAKARTA - Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection (PPPA) I Gusti Ayu Bintang Darmawati ensured the government's seriousness in dealing with early child marriage issues.

"Very serious, very serious, (danger) if it doesn't cut it," said Bintang at the Jakarta Presidential Palace, Wednesday, January 18, as reported by Antara.

According to Bintang, the PPPA Ministry will hold a coordination meeting (rakor) regarding early child marriage.

"Later we have the coordination meeting. Right now there are extraordinary issues related to children, kidnappings, then hundreds of children, we will discuss this with existing stakeholders, it will be important that it is upstream, in prevention," he added.

The presence of related ministries and non-ministerial government agencies (K/L) as well as regional heads, according to Bintang, is important to oversee the prevention of early marriage problems in children.

"Then, to tighten it too, we have a coordination meeting with NGO friends, including Badilag (Religious Court Agency) as well, discussing issues related to children, including marriage of this child," he explained.

However, he has not explained what firm action from the Government to prevent early marriage to the child.

"We will coordinate first, there is a solution, then we will convey it in the near future. I'll let you know later," he added.

Previously, based on data from the Surabaya Religious High Court, the number of applications for marriage dispensation in East Java Province in 2022 reached 15,212 cases.

Head of Representative for the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) of East Java Province, Maria Ernawati, said that of the 15,212 marriage dispensation applications, 80 percent of them were because the applicants were pregnant; while the remaining 20 percent occurred for many reasons, such as matchmaking due to economic factors.

In particular, there were 191 marriage dispensation applications to the Ponorogo Religious Court, with details of the causes of dating as many as 66 cases, 115 cases of pregnancy, and 10 cases because the women had given birth. Of the 191 cases, 176 of them have been decided by the religious court.

The number of marriage dispensation in 2022 actually decreased when compared to 2021, because throughout 2021 there were 266 marriage dispensation applications and 258 cases were decided.

Meanwhile, at the Bandung Religious Court, it was recorded that the application for dispensation for marriage in 2022 reached 143 cases. This number is also lower than the previous year, which reached 193 cases in 2021 and 219 cases in 2020.

Most of the reasons for the marriage dispensation are pregnancy outside of marriage at the age of 17-18 years, although there are also under the age of 16 years and the average dropout of elementary or junior high schools.

In accordance with Law (UU) Number 16 of 2019 concerning Amendments to Law Number 1 of 1974 concerning Marriage, especially in Article 7 paragraph (1), it is explained that marriage can only be permitted if men and women reach the age of 19 years.

This means that both men and women who are not yet 19 years old and want to get married must ask for a marriage dispensation to a religious court. The requirements for dispensation of marriage include submitting proof of the identity of parents, such as ID cards, family cards (KK), marriage books, diplomas, and rejection letters from the Office of Religious Affairs (KUA).