"In a country that has cultural diversity, efforts to prevent child marriage must continue to be enhanced with support from all related parties," she said in a statement issued here on Monday.
Recently, a social media post on the marriage of a 15-year-old teenage girl and a 17-year-old teenage boy in Central Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, was under the spotlight.
As per UNICEF data from 2023, as many as 25.53 million women in Indonesia were married before turning 18.
Indonesia is ranked fourth in the world in terms of child marriage, after India, Bangladesh, and China.
According to Moerdijat, efforts to prevent child marriage must be carried out consistently by all relevant parties.
Related news: Government launches child marriage prevention guideline
She said that preventive measures must be taken in various ways, starting from education and information dissemination about the negative impact of child marriage, strengthening regulations, carrying out child and family empowerment, and strengthening cross-sectoral coordination.
"Those measures whose implementation involves many parties must be realized consistently," she stressed.
She said that coordination between related stakeholders must be bolstered without delay to build a massive child marriage prevention system in several regions in the country.
The MPR deputy speaker encouraged the active involvement of all related parties to build a comprehensive child marriage prevention system, so that Indonesia's human resource development efforts can produce competitive future generations.
Related news: Minister spotlights child marriage issue at National Children's Forum
Translator: Fianda Sjofjan, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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