Schooling and sex education can help reduce high child marriage rates

When we commemorate the International Day of Families on May 15, we should remember that despite the decline in child marriage rate globally, our country’s progress in tackling the issue remains slow. Many children still trade their optimum period to grow and thrive for the responsibilities of parenthood.

UNICEF ranks Indonesia eighth-highest globally and second in Southeast Asia in terms of the number of child marriages. The latest National Socioeconomic Survey (Susenas) found that 11.21 percent of girls age 20-24 wed before 18, which equals 1.2 million child brides. Within the same population, over 60,000 girls marry before 15. On the other hand, one in every 100 boys marries before 18.

Child marriage determinants include lack of education, poverty, gender inequality and cultural and religious norms.  A study held in Bone, South Sulawesi, one of the provinces with the highest rate of child marriage in Indonesia, discovered that teenagers who drop out of school are more likely to marry younger.