Perkawinan Anak
Covid-19 ini memberi dampak luar biasa di segala aspek kehidupan. Dari semua itu, anak menjadi salah satu kelompok yang kena dari dampak tersebut, mulai dari kekerasan hingga kasus lainnya yang komplek untuk diselesaikan.Kasus anak yang sekarang ini sedang terjadi terutama diera pandemi ini adalah meningkatnya perkawinan anak.
Pernikahan anak di mulai dari usia 14 s.d 17 tahun. Pada masa usia tersebut seharusnya mereka berhak merasakan serunya bermain bersama teman – teman, menikmati indahnya masa remaja, belajar, mengimplementasikan bakatnya da passionnya dan mendapat kasih sayang dan perlindungan dari orang tua. Perkawinan anak dapat membawa anak ke “dunia dewasa” secara prematur.
Pernikahan anak telah lama menjadi hal biasa dalam komunitas tradisional dari kepulauan Indonesia hingga India, Pakistan, dan Vietnam, tetapi jumlahnya telah menurun karena badan amal melakukan terobosan dengan mendorong akses ke pendidikan dan layanan kesehatan wanita.
Sebelumnya,COUNCIL of Foreign Relations mencatat bahwa Indonesia ada di urutan ketujuh dengan angka absolut dan tertinggi kedua di ASEAN setelah Kamboja. Melihat data tersebut, Menteri
Pemberdayaan Perempuan dan Pelindungan Anak, Yohana Yembise menyebut kondisi saat ini sudah menuju darurat. Dampaknya, kata dia, tidak hanya bagi anak itu sendiri, namun orang tua, keluarga, masyarakat dan negara pada akhirnya.
Sekaligus Koalisi Perempuan Indonesia (KPI) menyebutkan kasus perkawinan anak di Jawa Tengah cenderung tinggi dibandingkan daerah lain.
Data perkawinan anak sebelum pandemic covid-19 hingga pandemic 2020
Dilihat dari data dan grafik anak dari Pengadilan Anak Semarang dari bulan Januari hingga bulan April sudah ada perkembangan menurun namun naik kembali di bulan Mei kaena pandemic covid-19 yang terlalu lama.
Data yang diperoleh Pengadilan Agama Semarang, ada sejumlah daerah di Jateng yang mengalami kenaikan kasus pernikahan anak. Daerah tersebut antara lain Purwodadi,Pemalang,Cilacap,dan Banjarnegara.
Di Cilacap sepanjang 2020 tercatat 295 pasangan dan tertinggi di Jawa Tengah yang mengajukan dispensasi perkawinan atau menikah di bawah umur. Jumlah itu tidak jauh berbeda di tahun 2019 yang seharusnya menurun karena perubahan undang-undang.
Menurut Lenny N. Rosalin ,Deputi Tumbuh Kembang Anak Kementerian PPPA selain berdampak terhadap pendidikan, perkawinan anak juga memiliki dampak yang penting untuk kesehatan ibu dan anak, serta ekonomi. “Terkait masalah kesehatan, baik dari ibu maupun anaknya, karena si Ibu masih memiliki umur yang sangat muda, ketika melahirkan akan terkena resiko pendarahan, bahkan kematian. Ketiga, masalah ekonomi, jika dalam usia anak-anak mereka telah menjadi janda yang telah memiliki anak, maka anak tersebut harus bekerja untuk menghidupi anaknya. Selain itu, pada umumnya mereka hanya memiliki ijazah tingkat sekolah dasar dan memiliki upah yang rendah, sehingga dapat menyebabkan siklus kemiskinan. Jika Indonesia ingin memiliki Indeks Pembangunan Manusia (IPM) yang tinggi, maka seluruh lapisan masyarakat harus ikut menekan angka perkawinan anak”, ujar Lenny.
'Generasi COVID'
Muskaan yang berusia lima belas tahun mengatakan bahwa dia dipaksa menikahi bocah lelaki berusia 21 tahun di sebelah oleh ibu dan ayahnya, yang merupakan pembersih jalan di kota Varanasi di India dan memiliki enam anak lain untuk diberi makan.
"Orang tua saya miskin, apa lagi yang bisa mereka lakukan? Saya berjuang sekuat tenaga tetapi akhirnya harus menyerah," remaja itu menjelaskan sambil menangis.
Save the Children telah memperingatkan bahwa kekerasan terhadap anak perempuan dan risiko persatuan paksa, terutama di kalangan anak di bawah umur, "bisa menjadi lebih dari ancaman daripada virus itu sendiri".
Sedangkan pendidikan telah dipuji sebagai prinsip utama dalam perang melawan pernikahan anak, para aktivis memperingatkan bahwa dengan penguncian yang memaksa ratusan juta orang keluar dari sekolah, anak perempuan di bagian termiskin dunia akan terkena dampak paling parah. Di NTB saja, sekitar 500 perkawinan anak dilaporkan telah terjadi dalam masa pandemi Covid-19. Hal itu disampaikan Pelaksana Harian Kepala Dinas Pemberdayaan Perempuan, Perlindungan Anak, Pengendalian Penduduk, dan Keluarga Berencana Provinsi NTB Dede Suhartini, yang mengatakan data itu diterimanya dari organisasi nirlaba di wilayah itu.
NTB adalah satu dari 13 provinsi di Indonesia, yang menurut data Kementerian Pemberdayaan Perempuan dan Perlindungan Anak (KPPPA), mengalami kenaikan angka pernikahan anak di atas batas nasional dalam periode 2018-2019.
Di Sulawesi Selatan, Direktur Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Asosiasi Perempuan Indonesia untuk Keadilan (LBH APIK) Makassar, Rosmiati Sain, mengatakan selama pandemi ada sekitar sembilan kasus yang diterima LBH APIK dari tiga daerah, yakni Kota Makassar, Kabupaten Gowa, dan Pangkep. "Ada tiga kasus yang terjadi, karena pemaksaan. Dipaksa orangtuanya menikah karena orangtuanya dari sisi ekonomi tidak bisa melaut karena penerapan PSBB," ungkap Rosmiati Sain kepada wartawan di Makassar, Darul Amri, yang melaporkan untuk BBC News Indonesia.
Sementara, dalam kurun waktu Januari hingga Juni tahun 2020, Badan Peradilan Agama Indonesia telah menerima sekitar 34.000 permohonan dispensasi kawin yang diajukan mereka mereka yang belum berusia 19 tahun.
Indonesia, yang memiliki salah satu angka pernikahan anak tertinggi di dunia menurut UNICEF, tahun lalu menaikkan usia resmi untuk menikah dari 16 menjadi 19 untuk kedua jenis kelamin dalam upaya untuk mengatasi masalah tersebut.
Namun ada celah - pengadilan agama setempat dapat menyetujui persatuan tersebut.
Otoritas Islam Indonesia secara resmi mengizinkan lebih dari 33.000 pernikahan anak antara Januari dan Juni tahun ini, dibandingkan dengan total 22.000 untuk seluruh tahun 2019, menurut
Kementerian Pemberdayaan Perempuan dan Perlindungan Anak.
Pemimpin India Narendra Modi juga mengatakan negaranya akan menaikkan usia pernikahannya - dari 18 menjadi 21, tetapi Girls, Not Brides mengatakan langkah seperti itu sulit untuk diterapkan dan tidak mengatasi akar penyebabnya.
'Penurunan angka perkawinan anak kecil'
Data dari KPPPA, angka perkawinan anak di Indonesia mencapai 11,21% di tahun 2017 dan
turun ke angka 10,82% tahun 2019.
"Target RPJM 2020-2024, angkanya harus turun menjadi 8,74%. Mudah-mudahan bisa turun
karena kalau kita lihat penurunan setiap tahunnya itu hanya 0,3%, nol koma… itu sangat
kecil sekali… Ini tantangan kita bersama," kata Deputi Tumbuh Kembang Anak KPPPA Lenny
Rosalin dalam sebuah diskusi yang ditayangkan di Youtube resmi kementerian.
Dalam hal kesehatan, misalnya, Lenny mengatakan kehamilan pada usia anak akan rawan
terhadap nyawa dan kesehatan ibu dan bayi. Bayi yang lahir pun bisa saja kurang gizi dan
mengalami stunting.
Anak yang menikah dini kemungkinan juga putus sekolah dan sulit mendapat pekerjaan
yang layak di kemudian hari karena tingkat pendidikan yang rendah.
"Pendidikan, kesehatan, ekonomi ini merupakan variabel yang digunakan untuk menghitung
Indeks Pembangunan Manusia (IPM). Perkawinan anak ini akan mengancam juga IPM kita,"
kata Lenny pada BBC Indonesia.
Untuk menekan angka perkawinan anak, baik yang secara siri maupun melalui mekanisme
dispensasi, ia mengatakan langkah pencegahanlah yang paling penting.
"Yang pertama, anaknya dipinterin, ditingkatkan pemahamannya. Mereka sekolah dulu
minimal lulus SMA agar wajib belajar 12 tahun bisa kita capai," ujarnya.
Kementerian juga mengadakan program Pusat Pembelajaran Keluarga (Puspaga), yang
sekarang jumlahnya ada 135 di seluruh Indonesia, satu tujuannya mengedukasi
keluarga-keluarga untuk tak menikahkan anak mereka.
Kembali ke Lombok Utara, Saraiyah, menyadari perjuangannya untuk menyelesaikan
perkawinan anak di wilayahnya masih panjang.
Namun, ia memutuskan untuk tak menyerah, meski kadang usahanya diprotes keluarganya
sendiri.
"Karena ibu juga punya anak perempuan… Ketika ibu bisa menyelamatkan satu orang anak,
memisahkan satu orang anak yang mau menikah, berarti ibu bisa menyelamatkan 100
generasi muda untuk ke depannya," ujar Saraiyah.
Sementara, bagi Eni, yang anaknya sudah terlanjur menikah, ia hanya berharap anakya,
entah bagimana, dapat kembali ke sekolah.
"Kalau memang dia diizinin sama suaminya untuk sekolah lagi ya saya sekolahin. Kalau
nggak diizinin suaminya sudah bukan hak ibu sekarang. Kan dia sudah hak si lakinya dan
keluarganya," ujar Eni.
reference: bbc
Dispensasi
Perkawinan anak tak hanya dilakukan di bawah tangan seperti yang terjadi dalam kasus
Mona, tapi juga diberi celah pula oleh UU No 16 tahun 2019 dengan mekanisme dispensasi.
"Kenyataan di lapangan, dispensasi itu menjadi tameng mereka [anak yang mau menikah].
Mereka bilang 'toh sudah hamil kan bisa dinikahkan'. Sebenarnya kan nggak semudah itu
walau dengan dispensasi," ujar Saraiyah.
Dispensasi diatur UU No.16/2019, yang mengubah usia minimal perkawinan menjadi 19
tahun baik untuk laki-laki dan perempuan.
Aturan itu mengubah ketentuan dalam UU No. 1/1974 yang sebelumnya mengatur bahwa
usia minimal perkawinan perempuan adalah 16 tahun, sementara yang laki-laki 19 tahun.
Dalam hal terjadi penyimpangan terhadap ketentuan usia minimal itu, undang-undang itu
memberi celah dispensasi yang memungkinkan orang tua memohon pengadilan
mengizinkan pernikahan dengan alasan mendesak dengan disertai bukti pendukung yang
cukup.
Direktorat Jenderal Badan Peradilan Agama yang diolah KPPPA, sejak Januari hingga Juni
2020, terdapat sekitar 34.000 permohonan dispensasi perkawinan yang masuk ke
pengadilan agama.
Sekitar 97% permohonan dispenasi itu dikabulkan, yang berarti perkawinan diizinkan.
Permohonan dispensasi pada semester pertama tahun 2020 itu sendiri meningkat drastis
dibanding dengan data keseluruhan tahun 2019, yakni dengan 23.700 permohonan.
Hakim Yustisial Mahkamah Agung RI, Dr. Mardi Candra, mengatakan sekitar 60 persen
dispensasi itu diajukan oleh mereka yang di bawah usia 18 tahun, atau masih dalam usia
anak.
Referesi: bbc kemenppa,dan Jakarta Post
https://kemenpppa.go.id/index.php/page/read/31/1685/perkawinan-anak-sebuah-ikatan-sakral-pemadam-api-harapan
https://www.bbc.com/indonesia/indonesia-53719619
https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/09/01/virus-despair-forces-girls-across-asia-into-child-marriage.html
Disusun oleh:Tasya Secia Zahrani
Covid-19 has had a tremendous impact in all aspects of life. All of that, children are one of
the groups affected by this impact, ranging from violence to other complex cases to be
resolved. Child cases that are currently happening, especially in this pandemic era, are the
increase in child marriage.
Child marriage starts from the age of 14 to 17 years. At that age, they should have the right to feel the excitement of playing with friends, enjoying the beauty of adolescence, learning, implementing their talents and passion and receiving love and protection from their parents. Child marriage can lead children into the "adult world" prematurely.
Child marriage has long been commonplace in traditional communities from the Indonesian archipelago to India, Pakistan, and Vietnam, but the numbers have declined as charities make inroads with encouraging access to women's education and health services.
Previously, COUNCIL of Foreign Relations noted that Indonesia was in seventh place with the absolute number and the second highest in ASEAN after Cambodia. Seeing this data, the Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection, Yohana Yembise, said that the current condition was heading for an emergency. The impact, he said, was not only for the children themselves, but their parents, family, society and the country in the end.
At the same time the Indonesian Women's Coalition (KPI) stated that child marriage cases in Central Java tend to be high compared to other regions.
Judging from the data and charts of children from the Semarang Children's Court from January to April there has been a downward trend, but it rose again in May due to the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic.
Data obtained by the Semarang Religious Court, there are a number of areas in Central Java that have experienced an increase in child marriage cases. These areas include Purwodadi, Pemalang, Cilacap, and Banjarnegara.
In Cilacap throughout 2020 there were 295 couples and the highest in Central Java who applied for dispensation of marriage or underage marriage. That number is not much different in 2019, which should have decreased due to changes to the law.
According to Lenny N. Rosalin, Deputy of Child Development at the PPPA Ministry, apart from having an impact on education, child marriage also has an important impact on the health of mothers and children, as well as the economy. "Regarding health problems, both from mother and child, because the mother is still very young, when giving birth will be exposed to the risk of bleeding, even death. Third, the economic problem, if at the age of the children they are widows who already have children, then the child has to work to support the child. In addition, they generally only have a diploma at the primary school level and have low wages, which can lead to a cycle of poverty. If Indonesia wants to have a high Human Development Index (HDI), then all levels of society must also reduce the number of child marriages, ”said Lenny.
'The COVID generation'
Muskaan, fifteen, said he was forced to marry the 21-year-old boy next door by his mother and father, who are street cleaners in the Indian city of Varanasi and have six other children to feed. "My parents are poor, what else can they do? I fought my hardest but eventually had to give up," the teenager explained tearfully.
Save the Children has warned that violence against girls and the risk of forced union, especially among minors, "could be more of a threat than the virus itself".
While education has been hailed as a central principle in the fight against child marriage, activists warn that with lockdowns forcing hundreds of millions of people out of school, girls in the world's poorest parts of the world will be hardest hit.
In NTB alone, around 500 child marriages were reported to have occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic.
This was conveyed by Dede Suhartini, Executive Head of the Office for Women's Empowerment, Child Protection, Population Control and Family Planning for NTB Province, who said that the data was received from non-profit organizations in the region.
NTB is one of 13 provinces in Indonesia, which according to data from the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection (KPPPA), experienced an increase in the number of child marriages above the national limit in the 2018-2019 period.
In South Sulawesi, the Director of the Legal Aid Institute for the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice (LBH APIK) Makassar, Rosmiati Sain, said that during the pandemic there were about nine cases received by LBH APIK from three regions, namely Makassar City, Gowa Regency, and Pangkep. "There were three cases that occurred because of coercion. Their parents forced them to marry because their parents from an economic perspective could not go to sea because of the
implementation of PSBB," said Rosmiati Sain to journalists in Makassar, Darul Amri, who reported for BBC News Indonesia.
Meanwhile, in the period January to June 2020, the Indonesian Religious Courts Board received around 34,000 applications for dispensation of marriage submitted by those who were not yet 19 years old.
Shattered dreams
Indonesia which has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world according to UNICEF, last year raised the legal age for marriage from 16 to 19 for both sexes in a bid to address the problem. There is, however, a loophole - the local religious court can approve the union.
Indonesia's Islamic Authority officially permitted more than 33,000 child marriages between January and June this year, compared to a total of 22,000 for the whole of 2019, according to the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection.
Indian leader Narendra Modi also said his country would raise the age of marriage - from 18 to 21, but Girls, Not Brides said such a move was difficult to implement and did not address the root causes.
The data from KPPPA shows that the rate of child marriage in Indonesia reached 11.21% in 2017 and decreased to 10.82% in 2019.
"The target for the 2020-2024 RPJM, the figure must decrease to 8.74%. Hopefully it can go down because if we see the annual decline is only 0.3%, zero point ... it's very small ... This is our common challenge," he said KPPPA Deputy for Child Development Lenny Rosalin in a discussion broadcast on the ministry's official Youtube.
In terms of health, for example, Lenny said that a pregnancy at the age of a child would be
vulnerable to the life and health of the mother and baby. Even babies born can be malnourished and stunted.
Children who marry early may also drop out of school and find it difficult to get a decent job at a later date due to low levels of education.
"Education, health, economy are variables used to calculate the Human Development Index (HDI). Child marriage will also threaten our HDI," Lenny told BBC Indonesia.
To reduce the number of child marriages, both independently and through the dispensation mechanism, he said that preventive measures are the most important.
"First, their children are being educated, their understanding is improved. They went to school at least after graduating from high school so that we can achieve 12 years of compulsory education," he said.
The Ministry also organized a Family Learning Center (Puspaga) program, which currently has 135 throughout Indonesia, with one goal being to educate families not to marry off their children. Returning to North Lombok, Saraiyah, realizes that her struggle to resolve child marriage in her area is still long.
However, he decided not to give up, even though his own family protested his efforts.
"Because a mother also has a daughter ... When a mother can save one child, separating one child who wants to marry, it means that the mother can save 100 young generations in the future," said Saraiyah.
Meanwhile, for Eni, whose child is already married, she only hopes that her child will somehow return to school.
"If she has the permission of her husband to go back to school, I will go to school. If her husband does not allow her, it is not the right of the mother now. She and her family have rights," said Eni. reference: bbc
Child marriage is not only carried out under the hands as happened in the Mona case, but also given a gap by Law No. 16 of 2019 with a dispensation mechanism.
"The reality in the field is that the dispensation becomes their shield [children who want to marry]. They say 'after all, they can marry you'. Actually it's not that easy even with dispensation," said Saraiyah.
Dispensation is regulated by Law No.16 / 2019, which changes the minimum age of marriage to 19 years for both men and women.
This rule changes the provisions in Law no. 1/1974 previously stipulated that the minimum age of marriage for women was 16 years, while for men, 19 years.
In the event of a deviation from the minimum age requirement, the law provides a gap in dispensation that allows parents to request the court to allow marriage on urgent grounds, accompanied by sufficient supporting evidence.
The Directorate General of Religious Courts, which was processed by KPPPA, from January to June 2020, there were around 34,000 applications for marriage dispensation that were submitted to religious courts.
About 97% of the requests for dispenation were granted, which means that marriage is permitted. Applications for dispensation in the first half of 2020 itself increased dramatically compared to the overall data for 2019, which was 23,700 applications.
The Judge of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Indonesia, Dr. Mardi Candra, said that around 60 percent of the dispensation was submitted by those who are under the age of 18, or are still
children.
Referesi: bbc kemenppa,dan Jakarta Post
https://kemenpppa.go.id/index.php/page/read/31/1685/perkawinan-anak-sebuah-ikatan-sakral-pemadam-api-harapan
https://www.bbc.com/indonesia/indonesia-53719619
https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/09/01/virus-despair-forces-girls-across-asia-into-child-marriage.html
Disusun oleh:Tasya Secia Zahrani
