Marriage law needs revision, says minister Khofifah

JAKARTA (JP): State Minister for Women's Empowerment Khofifah Indar Parawansa said her office was proposing revisions to the 1974 marriage law to ensure greater respect for women's rights and raise the minimum marriageable age to 20 years of age.

The proposal to raise of the marriageable age is designed to lower the high rate of maternal and infant mortality in this country.

According to Khofifah, maternal mortality had reached 390 per 100,000 births, while the infant mortality rate was around 46 per 1,000 births.

"We see a strong correlation between young parents and the mortality rate. Marrying at such a young age is damaging to women's reproductive health," she said.

The law stipulates that the minimum permitted marriageable age for a man is 19 while for women it is 16.

Women who get married before they are 20, Khofifah argued, are five times more at risk as they are biologically immature.

"In many regions, 16 year-old girls or below have married. I even found in West Nusa Tenggara, a 16 year-old girl already married three times!" Khofifah, who also chairs the National Family Planning Coordination Board (BKKBN), remarked.

Besides lowering the mortality rate, increasing the age limit will improve the quality of human resources.

"Financially and psychologically, both men and women aren't ready to get married at that age. I mean, they haven't even graduated from high school yet," she said.

Khofifah said the draft revisions of Law No. 1/1974 have been submitted to the Minister of Religious Affairs so that it can be discussed by the House of Representatives,

Another significant change being sought is a revision of the definition of the woman's role in the household so as to ensure better equality.

Khofifah contended that the law must ensure that the wife's rights and obligations are addressed in the same way as those of the husband.

While article 31 section three of the law states that the wife has equal rights with her husband, section three states that "the husband is the head of the family and the wife is the housewife."

On a related subject, Khofifah said discussions were still continuing on the possibility of scrapping Government Regulation No. 10/1983 which bans polygamy for civil servants.

She said if the regulation were to be revoked, it would be so as to eliminate discrimination and realize gender equality.

"Imagine a female civil servant who happens to be a second wife, she will lose her job. While a man who has more than one wife will only have an administrative sanction imposed," Khofifah said.(hdn)