Child Marriage (CM), Teenage Pregnancies (TP) and Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM/C) were previously left in the dark and were tightly covered in thick blankets of cultural, traditional and religious boundaries.
UNICEF states an estimated 14.2 million girls worldwide marry before the age of 18 each year. Over 700 million women alive today were once child brides, and one in three of these girls married before the age of 15. In Indonesia, one out 9 girls got married before the age of 18 years old.
Child marriage is a prevalent and severe problem in Indonesia. An estimate of one in every nine girls aged 20-24 married before the age of 18 or around 1.2 million according to the 2018 Socio-Economic National Survey (Susenas), manifesting the 8th highest number of child marriages in the world.
CM, TM and TP are a violation of children’s human rights as well as grave public health issues. Despite being prohibited by international human rights and national laws, these harmful practices continue to deprive millions of girls and boys alike around the world from their happy and fulfilling childhood.
