More Child Marriages Requested in Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the vulnerability of children to the practice of child marriage. This phenomenon threatens the future of the next generation.

Kompas/Heru Sri Kumoro

The mural contains a message to avoid early marriage and to pursue more achievements and work on Jalan Bekasi Timur Raya, North Jakarta, Thursday (20/2/2020). According to Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) data for 2018, the national prevalence or total number of child marriages is 11.2 percent with 1.2 million cases of marriage recorded.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The abolition of child marriage, demanded since the first Indonesian Women’s Congress back in 1928, has not yet been realized. Although it violates children’s rights and ruins their future, child marriage is still not considered a serious issue. During this Covid-19 pandemic period, child marriages in several regions have risen.

Child marriage is practiced through marriage dispensation in court, unregistered marriage or custom-based marriage. The Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) has received a report that, in the pandemic period (2020-2021) numerous youngsters from poor families have dropped out of junior or senior high school due to marriage. Aside from the economic factor, or family poverty, child marriage is the result of cultural or religious factors and promiscuity.

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“In 2020, there were 119 school dropout cases because of marriage. In 2021, 33 school dropout cases due to marriage have been reported [so far]. The main cause is the economic factor, such as being deprived of gadgets and quota, so that there’s no schooling during the pandemic.

Having nothing to do, they eventually got married or had their marriage arranged,” Retno Listyarti from the KPAI’s Education Division said in Jakarta on Saturday (17/4/2021).

Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), UNICEF and the Child Protection and Quality of Life Studies and Advocacy Center at the University of Indonesia have reported that Indonesia was on the list of the 10 countries with the highest absolute number of child marriages in the world in 2018. One of nine young women in Indonesia were married. In 2018, an estimated 1.22 million women aged 20 to 24 had been married before 18.

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The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation of child marriage as a result of economic pressures. Also in disaster areas, economic difficulties have prompted disaster victims’ families to have their children married.

KOMPAS/MACHRADIN WAHYUDI RITONGA

The women of RW 13, Cipaku Village, Paseh District, Bandung Regency, listened to a discussion about the adverse effects of child marriage, Saturday (17/4/2021) at the residence of the Chairman of RW 13.

Marriage dispensation

In line with the pandemic and following the promulgation of Law No.16/ 2019 on the amendment to Law No.1/1974 on Marriage, the number of requests for marriage dispensation in court has risen. The increasing number of dispensation requests is believed to be due to the change of the marriage age for men and women, which has been equalized at 19 years.

Data from the Religious Court Agency of the Supreme Court in 2020 recorded 64,000 marriage dispensation applications submitted to religious courts. The total represented an increase of 24,865 requests over 2019.

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In West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), for instance, marriage dispensation applications tendered to the religious court rose sharply in number in 2020, reaching 805 requests from only 332 in 2019. The majority of married couples still had the status of students.

“In Jerowaru district, child marriages declined to 14 cases in the period of 2018-2019 from 44 cases in the period of 2016-2017. However, since 2020 the number has again increased to 33 cases,” Ahmad Zahidun, chairman of the Forum of Observers of Women and Children of Pandan Wangi village in Jerowaru, East Lombok, said on Thursday (15/4).

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The secretary of the NTB Child Protection Institute, Sukron, said the pandemic had increased the vulnerability of children to marriage in NTB. Before the pandemic, students were under control. But when children learn at home, schools cannot fully control them, including their associations and access to gadgets. In several cases, they make acquaintances through gadgets or social media that end in marriage.

KOMPAS/ISMAIL ZAKARIA

LA (17) carries her child AAC (8 months) in a village in East Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, last Friday (16/4/2021). In his very young age, LA has been married three times and divorced twice.

In East Java, a rising trend of marriage dispensation was noticed in Banyuwangi and Jember. Mohammad Aries from the public relations division of the Banyuwangi Religious Court (PA) said 980 marriage dispensation cases were decided in court in 2020. “Most of them filed requests for cohabitation dispensation, had had intimacy; some were even pregnant. If left ignored, we would have pity on the applicants for their status,” added Aries.

The chairwoman of the Center for Gender Studies at Jember University, Linda Dwi Eriyanti, said the marriage dispensation figures did not fully represent the records of child marriage, as many early marriage cases went unrecorded and no dispensation was applied for. “Many Jember residents consider their marriage arranged by guardians valid and legitimate in religious terms.” said Linda.

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In South Kalimantan, requests for marriage dispensation have also increased. At the Martapura PA, marriage dispensation cases rose in number from 98 in 2019 to 229 in 2020. “In 2017 and 2019, child marriage cases in South Kalimantan topped the records in Indonesia,” said the head of the South Kalimantan Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Office, Husnul Hatimah.

Besides economic factors, child marriage is under the influence of culture and residents’ way of thinking. “Before the fasting month, my nephew married a girl who had just graduated from junior high school. They couldn’t get married in the religious affairs office, because the bride was underage. They eventually chose an unregistered marriage,” said Fakhrurazi, 40, a resident of Manarap Tengah village, Banjar regency.

Children who are forced to be married or due to certain conditions have to be married under the age of 19 face greater vulnerability.

Misiyah, director of KAPAL Perempuan (women’s rights advocacy) Institute, said child marriage had become a complicated issue in the pandemic. “The activity of KAPAL Perempuan’s network has identified online education, social restrictions and poverty as reasons. There’s the assumption that people can alleviate difficult economic conditions during the pandemic by getting their children married,” she pointed out.

Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister I Gusti Ayu Bintang Darmawati stressed that child marriage was a violation of children’s right. “Children who are forced to be married or due to certain conditions have to be married under the age of 19 face greater vulnerability,” she said.

(ZAK/ IKI/ GER/JUM/ MEL/RTG/SON/MED)

This article was translated by Aris Prawira