JAKARTA: Efforts to curb child marriage need to be supported by several parties, deputy for human, community and cultural development at the Ministry of National Development Planning and the National Development Planning Agency, Subandi Sardjoko said.
“Child marriage is a multidimensional problem that needs the participation and contribution of various parties to be prevented and dealt with,” he said at an online seminar from Jakarta.
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He said he hoped various elements would contribute to efforts to prevent the practice, which are expected to strengthen commitment and collaboration to reduce the rate of child marriages in Indonesia.
In 2018, the prevalence of women aged 20 to 24 years who were married before the age of 18 was 11.21 percent.
The National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2020-2024 is aiming to bring down this rate to 8.74 percent by 2024.
“Child marriage is one of the challenges to human resource development. Child marriage has a multi-faceted and cross-generational impact,” Sardjoko said.
He further said that child marriage is a form of violation of children’s rights that can hinder their fulfilment.
Child marriage can have an impact on health, including the risk of maternal and infant mortality, and in terms of education, women married before the age of 18 have a four times lower chance of completing high school education.
In terms of the economic aspect, there are twice as many women who were married before 18 working in the agricultural sector.
“Child marriage cases can occur anywhere, in any religious group, and at various levels of economic status,” he explained.
Sardjoko said that there are several factors driving child marriage, including economy, culture, religion, understanding, upbringing, the influence of social media, and down to negative behaviour in adolescents.
“Child marriage needs to be prevented. Awareness of the dangers of child marriage is very important to prevent child marriage,” he remarked.
