Pregnant Apart From Marriage, 46 Children In Baubau Central Sulawesi Asked For A Marriage Dispensation

Illustration of early marriage (ANTARA)

KENDARI - Throughout 2022 there were 46 minors in Baubau City, Southeast Sulawesi (Sulteng), applying for a dispensation of marriage through the local religious court. Most of the applicants were pregnant before getting married.

The head of the Baubau City Religious Court, Makbul Baki, said that 99 percent of the request for marriage dispensation was because she was pregnant outside of marriage.

This data, he said, is certainly sad because it illustrates the rise of free interaction among children. In fact, cases of dispensation of marriage tend to increase from year to year.

According to him, prevention should be done from upstream. In this case, the local city government through related regional apparatus organizations (OPD) and the Ministry of Religion through religious instructors is even more intense to make the public aware of the dangers of promiscuity among teenagers.

"If something like this has happened, it is already difficult to prevent it, it is better to prevent than treat it," said Makbul as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, February 10.

It was also said that not all marriage dispensation requests could be granted by the judge because decision-making must be based on recommendations from the counselor of the Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Office of Baubau City.

"Before entering the trial, they (children and parents) were given counseling first by the counselor. So, based on the recommendation from the counselor, it will be considered by the panel of judges whether the child deserves to be given dispensation or not," he said.

Head of the Advisory Agency for Family Development and Preservation (BP4) of Baubau City, Muhamad Ahadyat Zami, said that his party had scheduled routine socialization to schools as an effort to prevent promiscuity and early marriage among children.

Together with the Ministry of Religion and the Office of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection in Baubau City, we conducted road shows to schools, especially high schools and vocational schools. Last year, we involved eight schools as an effort to prevent early marriage," he said.

In the roadshow, continued Ahadyat, understanding is given to children regarding the regulations of the Marriage Law, physical, psychological readiness, and related to the health of reproductive devices.

As is known, Law Number 1 of 1974 concerning the latest marriage has been revised in 2019. Article 7, which was originally the minimum age to be allowed to have marriage, is a 19-year-old man and 16-year-old woman, now becomes 19 years for both parties.

Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Yohana Yambise said that the revision of the law was to protect children's rights and create healthy and prosperous marriages.