Urban and Rural Areas
Juli Amira Maulidar1, Aliasuddin1*, Chenny Seftarita1
1 Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected]
Accepted: 15 September 2021 | Published: 1 October 2021
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Abstract: This study aims to analyze the causes and comparisons of child marriage in urban and rural areas in Indonesia. The variables in this study are child marriage, education, occupation, income, and social environment. The secondary data used is SUSENAS March 2019 data retrieved from Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS). This study employs a quantitative analysis model using the Maximum Likelihood Estimation method (MLE). The results show a positive correlation between parents’ income and child marriage happened in rural areas in Indonesia; hence in urban areas, the ones having a positive correlation are education and social environment. The negative correlation in urban areas is parents’ income and occupation. While in rural areas, there are education, occupation, and social environment.
This study implicates that the government must allocate subsidy budgets to productive sectors, for instance, employment and education loan subsidies.
Keywords: Child marriage, education, occupation, income, social environment, and Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE)
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1. Introduction
Child marriage has grabbed all attention from both developed and developing countries because it contravenes children’s rights: the right to have education, play and explore their self- potency. Child marriage may happen to girls or boys. However, the high risk is taken by girls who marry under 18 years old. A girl who married early and had a child under 18 years old tends to have many children throughout her life. Therefore, developed and developing countries have to face problems on how to provide essential services for them (Wodon et al., 2019).
21% of 650 million women in the world got married under 18 (UNICEF, 2020). This phenomenon has become a crucial problem, especially for some countries such as Bangladesh, Chad, Nepal, The Central African Republic, even Indonesia. UNICEF global database (2020) shows a graph of the highest prevalence rate of child marriage. There are 17 countries included, and the Central African Republic, by 2020, was the highest prevalence rate of child marriage in the world at 68% of its total population of 4 million lives.
This picture indicates that almost the entire population of the Central African Republic is confronted with the choice of child marriage. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF, 2020) affirms that children who marry at a young age would likely quit school, have limited opportunity costs, and be more vulnerable to violence and mental health than those who marry at a mature age.
The case of child marriage is not only challenging developed countries but also developing countries like Indonesia. Atlas-Girls Not Brides (2021) points out that Indonesia ranks the world 37th highest in child marriage and the ASEAN 2nd highest after Cambodia. The prevalence of child marriage in Indonesia considerably varies between regions, but it is increasing in rural areas.
Statistically, it shows that urban areas have a lower rate of child marriage than rural areas in Indonesia. Urban areas have better education and occupation than rural areas; thus, urban women can reason for their future lives. According to BPS data in 2019, 20 provinces have a strong desire for child marriage than the national number (22.82%). These provinces are spread across in equal numbers from West Indonesia to East Indonesia.
Picture 1: The World Highest Prevalence of Child Marriage (In Percent) 43%45%47%52%52%53%54%59% 67%68%
40%42%
40%40%
34%37%
23%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Nigeria Chad Mali Burkina Faso Guinea Malawi Madagascar Uganda Indonesia
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
2008 2012 2016 2017 2018
Urban Areas Rural Areas
Picture 2. Child Marriage Rate in Urban and Rural Areas in Indonesia
Kalimantan is the third-largest island globally and one of the islands in Indonesia, which has the highest rate of child marriage by 16.3% of its population. Meanwhile, Sumatera Island has a lower percentage of child marriage, by 8.3% of its population, compared to the other islands.
This figure explains that geography is one factor of child marriage in some areas in Indonesia.
12% of women, out of 627 million Indonesian total populations, chose to marry at 20-24 years old. While 4.8% of women married under 17 years old, 1.8% of women married under 16 years old, and 0.6% of women married under 15 years old. In addition, one of nine girls under the age of 18 years old chooses child marriage.
Several factors promote the child marriage practice, such as the pressure of family economic and financial disparities, limited information access regarding literacy and knowledge.
Furthermore, a person's legitimacy and understanding of social construction have grown up in his environment up to peer demands, the legal, social, and religious norms system enforcement, and the local cultural values (BPS, 2020). Limited information access to literacy and knowledge for women about child marriage’s impact will cause women incapable of reasoning and choosing a shortcut to end their life issues.
According to BPS data in 2018, almost all women who chose to marry at a young age are not going to school and never go to school; it pictures on child marriage rate graphic based on educational attainment in Picture 4.
Picture 3: Area Expansion in Indonesia on Child Marriage Women
Picture 4: Child Marriage Rate Based on Educational Attainment (In Percent)
Almost all women who choose to get married at a young age graduated only from Junior High School, and it turned out to be hard to find a decent job (BPS, 2018). Syahnur et al. (2017) claim from their findings, conducted at three areas in Aceh Province, that the will to focus on completing education and finding a proper job is higher than the need to get married early.
Therefore, education can promote decreasing child marriage cases. This fact suggests the higher a person's education level, the lower their will to get married early.
Based on the previous study, there are several variables causing child marriage, including education, family income, occupation, and social environment. Related to that study, the researcher wants to conduct the same analysis in Indonesia. This study is considered essential to be researched to determine the most impactful variables toward child marriage in rural and urban areas in Indonesia. Accordingly, the policymakers are capable of making the right policy and decrease the prevalence of child marriage.
2. Literature Review Child Marriage
The educational factor is highly associated with the age of the first marriage, in which the higher the education, the higher the age of child marriage. Moreover, there is a finding that the parents' low educational attainment level brings prejudice, influencing parents' decisions in child marriage (Risya, 2011). The result of the correlation between respondents' knowledge and child marriage, in which two respondents (5.3%) who got married at a young age are well- informed, 18 respondents (45%) are informed enough, and two respondents (66.6%) are ill- informed. UNICEF (2016) mentions the number of 18-year-old girls who get married is still more significant every year. One-third of 250 million children get married before 15 years old, 142 million girls (14.2 million per year) are estimated to marry before 18 years old from 2011 to 2020, and 151 million girls will get married before 18 years old from 2021 to 2030.
Education
Education in this study is calculated by mean years of schooling. Girls who usually get married before 18 years old have less education, less possibility for a job, a high risk of death because of premature delivery, a high possibility of experiencing domestic abuse, and less autonomy in the household. Therefore, the girls tend to have lower education and suffer poor health (Kartikawati, 2015).
5
15
90
10
25
65
21
45 38
35 40
25
38 38
30
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
≤17 years old 18-20 years old
≥20 years old
University High School Junior High School Elementary School Not/Never Go to School
hence increasing a person's educational attainment could decrease the child marriage rate.
Completing junior high school brings about a lower prevalence of child marriage, and a drastic reduction could happen if completing high school level. Higher educational attainment encourages people to get married at an older age or mature age.
Occupation
Desiyanti (2015) notes that it is not the girls' occupation that affects the child marriage, but the girls' parents' occupation. According to Badan Pusat Statistik (2017), women who are participating in working will affect their age at the first marriage. If the area has excellent job opportunities, women would like to put off the marriage for the career.
Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS, 2019) mentions 17 types of the leading job in Indonesia's urban areas, including (1) agriculture, silviculture, and fishery; (2) mining and excavation; (3) electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply; (4) water supply; (5) waste management and recycling; (6) waste and garbage disposal and cleaning; (7) wholesale and retail trade; (8) cars and motorcycles repair and maintenance services; (9) transportation and warehousing; (10) accommodation, food, and beverages services; (11) information and communication; (12) financial services; (13) real-estate; (14) government services; (15) educational services; (16) social services; and (17) health services.
There are six main job categories as well for the rural areas folks, namely, (1) farmworkers; (2) industrial workers; (3) farmers; (4) small traders and retailers; (5) artisans; (6) entrepreneurs.
Social Environment
Several variables affect child marriage, including low education levels and family socioeconomic status, norms related to protecting family honor, and traditional practices (Aktepe, 2017).
Early marriage causes many problems at an early age, such as pregnancy problems, inability to access education, financial dependence, lack of self-confidence, and psychological disorders for women who are not ready for child marriage (Erensu et al., 2020). The influence of the social environment can be seen in several life aspects, for example, whether violent crime often occurs in the neighborhood or not. If the security is maintained correctly in the social environment, it can be categorized as an excellent social environment.
Family Income
Qibtiyah (2018) shows that there is a relationship between family income and child marriage.
Families with low income tend to choose to reduce the burden of their households. As parents who get no choice, marrying their daughter to a man who can improve the family's economic situation is considered the right choice to lessen the burden on the household.
Education, occupation, and income are several indicators that cannot be separated because they are closely related—high and quality education help to improve human resources ability.
Human resources development in a country will determine the economic character and social development because humans are dynamic behaviors that accumulate capital. In addition, qualified humans exploit various resources and explain various economic, social, and political activities necessary for state and household socioeconomic growth. Income, in this case, is the
amount of real income from all household members that are donated to provide family or individual needs in the household (Badan Pusat Statistik, 2019).
3. Research Methodology
This study uses a quantitative analysis model with the Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) method with nonlinear approach estimation. The general model is estimated according to this study objective:
YM = In [ (𝑥) 1−𝑝(𝑥) ] = 𝛽0 + 𝛽1 EDU+𝛽2 W 𝛽3 𝑆+𝛽4 𝐸𝑁𝑉+𝐷 + ε (1.1)
YM is child marriage presented by dichotomous variable, EDU is education level, S is parents’
income, ENV is a social environment, and W is occupation. Then, ε is a residual assumed to be normally distributed.
The data in this study is secondary data which is SUSENAS Indonesia data in March 2019.
The variable used is the age at the first marriage, education, occupation, income, and social environment published by Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS) in 2019.
4. DATA ANALYSIS
Descriptive analysis for SUSENAS data in March 2019 is accomplished with Shazam version 10. Inferential statistical analysis in this study uses logistic regression analysis. The dependent variable is a dummy; therefore, hypothesis testing is done using a logistic regression test.
5. Results and Discussion
The total sample used in this study is 159,227 Indonesian women who got married early. The SUSENAS sample, which is women in rural areas, is 100,170 people, and those who married early are 87,672 people. Meanwhile, the number of women in urban areas is 59,057 people, and 23,601 women married early.
Child Marriage Education
Occupation Income
Social Environment
Independent Variables Dependent Variables
Picture 5: Mind Mapping
6. Discussion
Table 1 shows the occupation variable in rural areas is not statistically significant. Still, it is theoretically significant, and it shows the same result for the income variable in urban areas, which is not statistically significant but theoretically significant. The education and social environment variables are very significant and negative in rural areas. These data illustrate that the higher the education and the better the environment where women live in the village, the higher the possibility of child marriage is lower with the ceteris paribus assumption. This variable is theoretically and statistically significant.
The occupation variable in urban areas is very significant and negative. This situation shows that the more decent jobs the urban communities receive, the lower the probability of child marriage with the ceteris paribus assumption will lower. This variable is theoretically and statistically significant.
The estimation results on both education and social environment variables in urban areas are positive, which indicates that child marriage will still happen even though the urban communities have had a higher education level and lived in a better social environment.
Table 1: The Estimation Results of Child Marriage in Indonesia’s Urban and Rural Areas
Variables Coefficient Standard
Error Sig. T-Ratio Odds Ratio Rural Areas
Constants Education Occupation Income
Social Environment
1.301 -0.106 -0.069 0.037 -0.015
0.022 0.186 0.013 0.189 0.229
0,000 0,000 0,157 0,000 0,000
57.357 -56.939 -5.2489 19.886 -6.9012
0.899 0.093 1.040 1.005 0.367
Married Early in Urban Areas (<18 Years Old ) …
Women who didn't marry early (>18 Years Old) 35.465
People Women who
Married Early in Rural Areas (<18 Years Old) 87.672
People Women who didn't
marry early in Rural Areas (>18 Years Old) 12. 498 People
Picture 6: The Number of Women Married Based on Age at the First Marriage in Urban and Rural Areas
Urban Areas Constants
Education Occupation Income
Social Environment
-1.151 0.092 -0.182 -0.242
0.340
0.028 0.204 0.017 0.102 0.294
0,000 0,000 0,000 0,226 0,000
-40.860 45.110 -10.629 -2.3699 1.1545
1.103 0.832 0.997 1.080 0.316
However, the income variable in rural areas gives positive estimation results, so the higher the rural communities' income, it will not influence child marriage. It happens because some locations in the rural areas believe that child marriage is a time-honored tradition that still cannot be eliminated, so the child marriage factor, such as income, can be improved.
7. Conclusion
According to the study that has been conducted, the overall research results can be concluded that child marriage in Indonesia is not only affected by the family education level, occupation, parent’s income, and social environment. Meanwhile, there are other supporting factors in child marriage, such as traditions and promiscuity. Yuminan (2016) has explained in her previous study that the phenomenon of child marriage has become a culture for many rural communities in Indonesia that still position girls or women as second-class citizens. Many parents want to speed up marriage for various social reasons, such as the idea that education is not essential for girls and the negative stigma against the status of spinsters.
Many rural communities in Indonesia who have decent jobs and stable incomes choose to marry off their daughters at such a young age. This statistic has become a traditional demand that is still being practiced by the local communities. Until now, the practice of child marriage is still affected by local traditions. The power of hereditary traditions makes child marriage inevitable even though the community has a decent education level and a good income.
The estimation results of child marriage in urban areas show that education and social environment have a positive correlation, which means that child marriage will still happen as much as urban areas have a better education and social environment. The result supports factors causing child marriage in urban and rural areas. Even the main factors preventing child marriage have been accomplished. The result of this study is in line with the previous research conducted by Wiranto (2021) on female students at the Muhammadiyah University of East Kalimantan, where child marriage happens as a result of matchmaking, compatibility between partners, and unwanted pregnancy as a consequence of promiscuity. Adolescent curiosity and not wanting to be restrained can encourage unsafe sex behavior and lead to child marriage.
This study is different from to this study from the previous ones. However, this study has some new findings—the study's limitations by adding some other variables. Further studies can use proxies such as traditions or customs, promiscuity as another variable to analyze the extent to which promiscuity and traditions are related to child marriage. In addition, the researcher hopes that this study can be a statistical evidence function as a support for a government agency in making decisions regarding child marriage prevention.
Furthermore, it is necessary to conduct a further study by including child marriage's other factors to test further the conclusions written in this study.
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