Thousands of Ex-Husbands Failing to Provide Maintenance for Former Wives and Children 'Blocked' by Civil Registry

The Surabaya Civil Registry and Population Office (Dispendukcapil) in East Java has blocked thousands of former husbands or fathers who fail to fulfil their maintenance obligations to ex-wives and children. At least 7,642 such former husbands are denied population administration (Adminduk) services by Dispendukcapil Surabaya. This action is possible because Dispendukcapil Surabaya has integrated its population services system with data from the Religious Court (PA) to ensure that former husbands comply with their maintenance duties. Public services will not be provided by Dispendukcapil to former husbands who have not yet settled their obligations for child maintenance, iddah maintenance, and mut’ah maintenance as per court rulings. “The population services will display a notice and will not proceed. In the E-Kitir system, it will show that the applicant has not fulfilled obligations under Religious Court decision number such and such. They must first report to the PA, and once paid, the system will automatically reopen,” explained Head of Dispendukcapil Surabaya, Eddy Christijanto, on Monday (30/3) as quoted from detikJatim. He explained that this policy has been in place since 2023 as a result of cooperation with the PA. Through the system integrated directly with the PA dashboard, officers can monitor SIAK data automatically. The system will send notifications if citizens with outstanding post-divorce obligations are found. Through this programme, Eddy urged former husbands to have legal and humanitarian awareness to carry out judges’ decisions. “Our hope is first to create real protection for ex-wives and children. Second, this is the city’s effort to protect vulnerable groups. To the former husbands, please implement divorce-related court decisions according to the rules for the sake of our children’s future,” he said. According to him, this step was taken due to the many cases of former husbands ignoring the rights of ex-wives and young children after divorce, leaving them without proper sustenance as stipulated by the PA. Based on data for child maintenance, there are 4,745 cases with no issues, 1,513 resolved, and 4,701 unresolved. For iddah maintenance, 3,713 with no issues, 2,085 resolved, and 5,161 unresolved. For mut’ah maintenance, 1,114 with no issues, 3,180 resolved, and 6,665 unresolved. In the block status column, all categories total 10,959, opened 3,317, and blocked 7,642.