Assessing The Role and Capacity of Local Government to Adopt Good Governance Values for Child Marriage Prevention in Central Java Indonesia

Abstract

The application of the values of good governance to the prevention of child marriage yielded no results. Since the passage of Law 16 of 2019 regarding marriage, data on minor child marriage has fluctuated from year to year. The number of minor marriages in Indonesia has decreased from 10.35% in 2020 to 9.23% in 2021, according to Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data. Data from the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection (KPPPA) reveals that there were 65,000 requests for child marriage dispensation in 2021 and, in 2022, as many as 55 thousand submissions. Changes in children's dating patterns, a shift in determining the marriage age to 19 years, and the prevention and control of child marriage, which have not been supported by all regional authorities, are some of the influencing factors. The aim of this research is to analyze the implementation of good governance in preventing child marriage and the role of local government and stakeholders in preventing and controlling child marriage. This research method is a mix method. Quantitative data was collected using a questionnaire to determine the community's response to child marriage. Qualitative data was conducted on victims, namely children who had married under dispensation, to investigate the problems and factors that influence the occurrence of child marriage. The study revealed that local government governance in preventing and controlling child marriage is still inadequate. Ineffective programs, activities, and sub-activities have not prevented child marriage. Regional governments rely solely on issues of women's empowerment and infant protection, whereas vital regional institutions have not been specifically engaged. Children who marry before the age of consent are extremely vulnerable. The limitation of this research is the distribution of children who married before the specified age. The data collected was finally carried out using a database from the Ministry of Religion combined with research using the snowball method. The implications of this research are to increase the role of local governments and stakeholders in preventing and protecting child marriage.