Module Preparation of Child Marriage Prevention through Strengthening of Formal and Non Formal Institution

BERDAYA Program (Formal and Non-Formal Institutional Empowerment Program) Rumah KitaB conducted a workshop on module preparation of Child Marriage Prevention through Strengthening of Formal and Non Formal Institutions on January 17, 2018 in Jakarta. The workshop is supported by Australia Indonesia Partnership for Justice 2 (AIPJ2) with the aim of gaining input on six modules text. The draft module was prepared by Rumah KitaB Team under the coordination of Mrs. Lies Marcoes and six coauthors. According to the plan, this module will be used by the BERDAYA facilitator in 4 working areas of this program; Bogor, Cirebon, North Jakarta and South Sulawesi.
The workshop was attended by staff of BERDAYA, Rumah KitaB and resource persons representing various institutions, including Mr. Adib Machrus, Head of KUA Development and Sakinah Family Ministry of Religious Affairs, Mrs. Rohika from the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection, Dr. Nur Rofiah from Alimat / KUPI (Indonesian Congress of Women Scholars), Mr. Mohammad Noor from Cilegon Religious Court, Mrs. Dani from Rahima, Mr. Marzuki Wahid from Fahmina and Irene Isnandjaja, representative of DFAT Australia. The total number of participants is about 20 people.

In the introduction, Lies Marcoes explains the background of the BERDAYA program activities and their relevance to the preparation of this module and the training that will be carried out using this module. Research of Rumah KitaB in 2014-2016 shows the relationship between child marriage with the weakening of men’s economic role due to changes in living space, loss of men’s access to resources, especially work and land. “The demand for female labor (wife) does not necessarily change the status of the role of the man (husband) as the head of the family. At the same time, men lose their authority and they reinforce their status with moral guard roles, “Mrs. Lies said in her presentation. “The government has tried to overcome the marriage of children, but the role of officials such as KUA and PA become more severe because the encouragement of the practice of child marriage comes from men who lost their economic role, but is getting tighter in maintaining the traditional morale in which they still have a role. This is reinforced by the changing landscape of religious authorities that tend to be more puritanical. The survey on child marriage acceptance index in Probolinggo and Sumenep, East Java (2017) organized by Rumah KitaB and UNICEF shows the attitude of men who are more accepting of child marriage practices.

On the situation, the training curriculum was developed with a framework to strengthen institutions that work in the prevention of child marriage through the provision of an understanding of the facts of child marriage, the rights of children agreed upon in the Child Protection Act, and text-reading methodologies that have the opportunity to reinterpret domination father in imposing child marriage. This activity also seeks to explain that the fulfillment of children’s rights and obedience to positive law is a way of avoiding legal dualism which has been a problem in the issue of child marriage. This legal dualism has resulted in many marriage practices that are illegal on positive law viewpoint but are considered valid by interpretation.

The workshop produced a curriculum flow that absorbed all proposals from the participants to be followed up by rewrites in several chapters or revisions for chapters considered to be sufficient. The BERDAYA program will pilot this training module in March 2018 following the revision process as recommended by the workshop. [Lies Marcoes / Seto Hidayat]