Indonesia fights to prevent child marriage amid COVID-19 pandemic by Fardah

 Jakarta, March 27 , 2021 (ANTARA) - Eni, a resident of West Nusa Tengga (NTB),  regretted that she allowed her 14-year-old daughter to marry last May 2020. Eni (not her real name) told BBC Indonesia in August last year that her daughter was often beaten by her husband, who was four years older.

She recalled that her daughter insisted to get marriage because she had been often together with her boyfriend since the COVID-19 pandemic that forced students to study from home.

Another a story of a child marriage was about 17-year-old Dini (not her real name), whose life had been disturbed by a powerful earthquake in Central Sulawesi, that destroyed her school and buildings. While staying in refugee camp, she had often spent time with her boyfriend and as a consequence she got pregnant. So, she decided to get married and drop out of school.

Indonesia has been facing double disasters since last year, notably natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The two disasters have been identified of hampering efforts to prevent child married. Economic problem and out-of-wedlock pregnancies often forced girls under 19 years old to get marriage.

Save the Children has warned that up to 2.5 million more girls around the world are at risk of marriage in the next 5 years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic's damage to education and the economy could reverse decades of progress on child marriage and pregnancy.

"COVID-19 has made an already difficult situation for millions of girls even worse. Shuttered schools, isolation from friends and support networks, and rising poverty have added fuel to a fire the world is struggling to put out. But we can and we must extinguish child marriage,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said.

Worldwide, an estimated 650 million girls and women alive today were married in childhood, with about half of those occurring in Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India and Nigeria, according to UNICEF.

“One year into the pandemic, immediate action is needed to mitigate the toll on girls and their families,” Fore said, adding: “By reopening schools, implementing effective laws and policies, ensuring access to health and social services – including sexual and reproductive health services – and providing comprehensive social protection measures for families, we can significantly reduce a girl’s risk of having her childhood stolen through child marriage.”

In certain regions in Indonesia, child marriage practices are quite common. According to the 2018 Socio-economic National Survey (Susenas), one in every nine girls aged 20-24 gets married before the age of 18. Its number is around 1.2 million, manifesting the 8th highest number of child marriages in the world.