VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia's government has made numerous efforts and applied programs to prevent child marriages, Subandi Sardjoko, Deputy for Human, Community and Cultural Development of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) said on Wednesday.

"In February 2020, the National Strategy for Prevention of Child Marriage was launched as a reference for all stakeholders, both at the central and rural region levels, to reduce the number of child marriages," Sardjoko remarked while speaking at an online seminar on Wednesday.

Sardjoko noted that the National Strategy to Prevent Child Marriage is a joint product of the Ministry of National Development Planning / Bappenas, Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the Indonesian-Australian Government Work Program through the MAMPU Program, and Australia Indonesia Partnership for Justice (AIPJ2) by involving various stakeholders, including experts, academics, and children's groups.

Another step taken to prevent child marriages is an amendment of Law Number 1 of 1974 on Marriage through Law Number 16 of 2019 that increases the minimum age of marriage to 19 years for both genders.

Sardjoko explained that amendment to the Marriage Law was supported by the Supreme Court through Supreme Court Regulation Number 5 of 2019 on Guidelines for Adjudicating Applications for Marriage Dispensation.

"Another program is a Joint Movement (GeBer) for the Prevention of Child Marriage from the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection to build awareness and joint commitment to reducing child marriage cases," he stated.

Efforts to prevent child marriages are also being undertaken through the Family Planning Generation Program (GenRe) from the Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) and the function of the Child Forum Pioneer and Reporting Party as a forum for children's participation.(Antaranews)