아세안

Child marriage is a global phenomenon where one in six girls aged under 19 are married as child brides that are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, in which girls are disproportionately affected by this practice. This study aimed to provide reliable numbers and descriptions of child marriages in Indonesia during the pandemic for the stakeholders in planning necessary actions. New child marriage dispensation application numbers in 2019, 2020 and 2021 were 24,865, 64225 and 62,890 cases, respectively. Up to 65% of new applications in 2019–2021 were consistently registered in six provinces in Java. However, the top-rank provinces with the rise of new applications in 2020 and 2021 when compared to records in 2019 were from outside Java. The skyrocketing number of child marriages during the pandemic, up to 2.5 times, should be taken seriously by the stakeholders with a focus on areas with high poverty percentages and girl populations.