Nusa Dua, Bali (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Population and Family Development/National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) is collaborating with religious and community leaders to reduce child marriage.
"We are collaborating with Islamic scholars in Islamic boarding schools, community leaders, and cultural figures," said the ministry's Deputy for Population Control, Bonivasius Prasetya Icthiarto, on the sidelines of the closing of the 2030 Asia Pacific Family Planning Forum here on Friday.
Icthiarto said that in several regions in Indonesia, there is an assumption that girls can be married once they have started menstruating. Besides such cultural factors, there are also child marriages that occur due to economic factors.
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Therefore, the government is trying to eradicate poverty so that children can continue their education. He believes that the ideal age for women to marry is 21 years and for men 25 years. Besides collaborating with religious, community, and cultural figures, from a health perspective, the government also encourages the use of contraceptives for women after giving birth.
He explained that in Indonesia the Family Planning (KB) program is carried out 49 days after delivery, while according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the use of contraceptives is carried out one year after delivery.
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The ministry recorded 18 births for every 1,000 girls aged 15-19 in 2024. He explained that this figure was still considered high even though it continued to decline. The government needs to prevent child marriage because marriage or birth experienced by girls has the potential to pose risks, both to their health and social life.
Meanwhile, the 2020 Population Census by the Statistics Indonesia (BPS) recorded the number of maternal deaths during childbirth at 189 per 100,000 live births. The data explains that there are 189 deaths of women during pregnancy, childbirth, or after childbirth per 100,000 live births. This figure represents a 45 percent decrease compared to the 346 maternal deaths in 2010.