The Minister Of Population Doesn't Believe Young People Are Reluctant To Marry: Have There Been Research Yet?

Minister of Population and Development of the Wihaji Family (left) at the BKKBN building, Jakarta, Tuesday (22/10/2024). ANTARA/Lintang Budiyanti Prameswari

JAKARTA - The Minister of Population and Development of the Wihaji Family dismissed the assumption that the younger generation in Indonesia was reluctant to get married.

"Young people don't want to get married, I believe Indonesia is not like that, there is no research yet? How much percent? Not yet, right?" he said as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, October 22.

He also responded to the phenomenon of being reluctant to have children or childfree which was not in accordance with the culture in Indonesia.

"Our culture is different, and we can't follow the culture of other people, other countries. This is a different culture, then the Sunatullah (law of God in Islam), we as human beings are indeed born for it. That's a natural process, if we fight it later, yes, there is another law of the Sunatullah yang," he said.

However, in order to maintain the total birth rate or TFR in Indonesia which is currently at 2.18 (every woman of productive age gives birth to two children on average), she stated that the Ministry of Population and Family Development will focus on control.

"We focus on control, because we see it sometimes people say how the demographic bonus is, this is my way of looking at it, because what is more important is after this (demographic bonus), 15 to 22 years in the future," he explained.

Wihaji also emphasized that the population development program so that it becomes a quality family cannot be measured quickly, it needs a long process.

"Tomorrow we have a cabinet meeting, there must be a briefing from the President, and from our own ministry of course there are short, medium, long-term targets, also remember that handling our ministry program cannot be measured quickly, with fast numbers, you can't, you need a process," he said.

Based on the Marriage Management Information System (Simkah) from the Ministry of Religion (Kemenag), it was recorded that 1,544,571 Muslim couples married in 2023. This figure decreased when compared to 2022 which reached 1.71 million couples.