Head of Central Java Womens Empowerment and Child Protection DP3A Agency and the Wahid Foundation Encourage Peace Villages to Prevent Child Marriages and Violence Against Women  

 Solo - The patriarchal culture in Indonesian society is still rooted in today’s society, making the role of women limited in the public sphere and shackled in the domestic sphere. This means issues related to women, such as sexual harassment, violence, violations of women's rights, and access to education, still occur.

Retno Dewi, Head of Central Java Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection (DP3A), who was one of the speakers at the training on the prevention of violent extremism and legal literacy for the Peace Village working groups in Central Java, stated that there were many problems experienced by women that had to be resolved. This training with a title "Strengthening the Capacity of the Working Groups on the Prevention of Intolerance and Violent Extremism; Women’s Rights, and Community-Based Protection Mechanisms” was held by the Wahid Foundation on Saturday night (03/13).

Based on the above, she said that the role of the local government was crucial in preventing and handling problems against women. Related to this issue, the local government has several gender equality programs that focus on empowering women, such as Empowering and Increasing Women's Economic Productivity and Increasing the Role of Women in Decision Making. The programs target vulnerable groups of women with low family income, in conflicts or disasters, and/or those that have no access to education. This is in line with the Peace Village program that prioritizes gender responsive community mechanisms to promote a peaceful and gender-just community. These government programs can minimize the occurrence of violations of women's rights and create an inclusive and equal social culture.

Besides the cases of violence and violations of women's rights, violence against children also often occurs. Retno said, "Usually this problem occurs to those who are married early."

For this reason, she highly appreciates the implementation of the minimum age of marriage, which is 19 years old for both women and men. Nevertheless, the Central Java Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection (DP3A) Agency, has initiated a program titled   to reduce and prevent early marriages. The program encourages marriages be done at the age of at least 21 for women and 25 for men, based on the consideration of having reproductive age and mental maturity.

Retno also encouraged all training participants to prioritize the implementation of gender-equal and gender-just programs in their respective Peace Villages. Retno emphasized that the role of the local government was not sufficient to solve these issues. For her, preventing and countering violence against women and children was a collective task.

"Handling cases of violence against children and women is not only the government’s task, but also a collective task," she mentioned firmly during the closing of the second-day training session.

 

Contact Person: Ahmad Saeroji (081299211930)