Child Marriage in Indonesia

Abstract

Child marriage has become an important issue in recent years, both nationally and globally. This is detrimental to children's growth and development. Many children throughout the world experience problems with child marriage, including in Indonesia. The difficulties they experience include reproductive health, emotional aspects, exploitation, violence and harassment. This paper uses critical discourse analysis methods to explore conceptual and practical gaps. This chapter was written qualitatively, using literature observations and previous research findings on early marriage. The results show that cultural factors and gender equality play a role in the high rate of child marriage in Indonesia. This chapter explains the socio-cultural aspects of early marriage and gender equality based on research in Indonesia. This chapter contributes to the academic and practitioner literature on preventing early marriage in Indonesia. The implication is that child marriage has become a reality in child protection efforts in Indonesia.