Political Constraint on Financing Child Marriage Prevention: A Case Study in Wiralaga, Mesuji

Abstract

The Government has formulated a series of policies to reduce child marriage as an effort to promote adolescent (sexual and) reproductive health. One of them is the Child Protection Act No: 35, 2014. The high prevalence of child marriage demonstrates that the system did not work as expected. One of the suspected issues is the political obstruction that causes problematic financing systems in child marriage prevention. This qualitative study was aimed at identifying the political constraint in financing child marriage prevention Mesuji. This study found informal political challenges in financing Child Marriage Prevention. The child marriage policy packaged in conjunction with financial support, disclose not gratified results in Wiralaga experiences. Slight female participation was driven by patriarchy consuetude. These challenges made the need for a policy scheme is not only done in a formal by affirmative policy but also the informal approach. For gender mainstreaming, issues on village budgetary policy, especially early marriage, should be enacted for conducting the informal strategy. Encouraging the existing women entity, such as Ibu-ibu pengajian (women religious group) , Pemberdayaan Kesejahteraan Keluarga (PKK – Family Welfare Empowerment) to take a role in village political budgeting process.