1,219 Children In Kalsel Ask For Marriage Dispensation, So Indications Of Many Marriages Under Hand

Pj Governor of South Kalimantan Safrizal ZA at a discussion forum on the prevention of child marriage in Banjarbaru / Antara

JAKARTA - Based on data from the Ministry of Religious Affairs of South Kalimantan during 2018-2020 the demand for early marriage dispensation or the age of children in the province reached 1,219 people.

This was conveyed by Pj Governor of South Kalimantan Safrizal ZA at a discussion forum on the prevention of child marriage in Banjarbaru, reported by Antara, Tuesday, May 25.

According to Safrizal, it takes hard work from all relevant parties to be able to get out of the problem of high number of child marriages that occur almost in some areas in South Kalimantan.

Moreover, he added, based on data from the Ministry of Religious Affairs kalsel in 2018-2020 recorded 1,219 child marriages with dispensation from the ministry of religion.

The data is indicative of many children marrying unofficially or under the hands.

This workaround must be done cross-agency. Starting from education, health, ministry of religion, religious courts, information service, Balitbangda, BKKBN, TP PKK, and others.

"If only the PPPA Office could not, efforts to prevent early marriage would be difficult," he said.

Safrial hopes that all relevant agencies will synchronize their data and immediately take preventive measures together.

"I hope, all relevant parties can prevent the occurrence of marriage without going through kua or official, because it is suspected that many people do," he said.

Safrizal again stressed, non-permitted child marriage should also be monitored, analyzed, just make a strategy what can be done.

All programs that have been made, he added, can also be focused on prevention of six areas, which there is an increase in cases above 100 during 2018-2020, namely Banjarmasin City, Banjar Regency, Tanah Laut, Hulu Sungai Utara, Barito Kuala and Tanah Bumbu.

The causes of high early marriage are gender inequality, economic and poverty, globalization or adolescent behavior, and regulation.

The Provincial Government of South Kalimantan through the Office of Women Empowerment and Child Protection (Dinas P3A) developed a strategy to reduce the number of cases of child marriage as discussed in the FGD.

Head of PPPA Office of Kalsel Province, Husnul Khatimah said, currently Kalsel is included in 20 provinces in Indonesia that are high in early childhood marriage.

Based on national data, in 2017 kalsel early marriage figure number one nationally with the percentage of early childhood marriage reached 23.12 percent or well above the national percentage of 11.54 percent.

In 2018 Kalsel was 4th or 17.63 percent higher than the national 11.21 percent. In 2019, Kalsel returned to the national first place or 21.18 percent compared to the national 10.82 percent. The decline occurred in 2020, which is the sixth national order or 16.24 percent compared to the national 10.35 percent.