Deputy Interior Minister Reveals Anomalies in Population Administration: Wife Reported Dead While Still Alive
JAKARTA - Deputy Interior Minister Bima Arya Sugiarto revealed an “anomaly” in population administration (adminduk), including a report from a husband stating that his wife had died even though she was still alive.
The statement was made by Bima while attending a working meeting and hearing opinions (RDP) of Commission II of the Indonesian House of Representatives on the agenda of supervising population administration.
“And the problem is that not all important events are reported. Yes, if it’s a birth, it’s automatically reported, but if it’s a death, it’s not automatic like that. So there are many regions that provide incentives to their citizens if there is a death, they will be given an incentive so that the data is updated like that,” said Bima at the Parliament Complex, Jakarta, on Monday (20/4/2026).
Therefore, he reminded that the workload of the civil registry and population records offices (Dukcapil) is very heavy because they have to record various events, such as births, deaths, marriages, divorces, to adoptions.
Nevertheless, he emphasised that all adminduk services are provided free of charge without any fees.
Bima explained that adminduk is a constitutional mandate that requires the state to provide legal protection to all citizens through the possession of official documents.
However, the former Mayor of Bogor assessed that the current legal basis, namely Law No. 24 of 2013, needs to be adjusted to the times.
He exemplified several issues that require regulatory strengthening, such as the legal basis for child identity cards (KIA), optimisation of digital population identities (IKD), to regulations on the authority of the population administration information system (SIAK) between central and regional governments.
“Well, these are approximately the issues that essentially make us have to re-examine the relevance of the existing legal foundation,” said the National Mandate Party politician.