GEMA CITA: Three Years Against Child Marriage in Sukabumi District

Sukabumi, September 25, 2024 – West Java Province still faces the challenge of child marriage, although the prevalence has decreased to 6.79% in 2023. To overcome this problem, various parties, including Yayasan Plan International Indonesia (Plan Indonesia) and the Sukabumi District government, have made prevention efforts through the implementation of local regulations, campaigns to stop child marriage, and strengthening the capacity of children, parents, educators, and religious and traditional leaders.

The GEMA CITA (Generasi Emas Bangsa Bebas Perkawinan Usia Anak) program has been Plan Indonesia’s effort for the past three years to prevent child marriage through collaboration with various parties including peer educators, schools, Community Based Integrated Child Protection (PATBM), and Child Friendly School (SRA) teams.

To conclude the GEMA CITA program in Sukabumi District, today (25/09) in the PKK Hall of Pendopo Bupati Sukabumi, all stakeholders who have been involved in the program gathered in the workshop “Learning from the GEMA CITA Program – Good Practices and Challenges”.

Ade Suryaman S.H. M.M., Regional Secretary of Sukabumi District, representing Drs. H. Marwan Hamami, M.M., Regent of Sukabumi, opened the event by expressing his appreciation for Plan Indonesia’s good work done for three years to prevent child marriage in Sukabumi District.

“The Sukabumi District Government has made various efforts to prevent child marriage such as Pergub 18/2021. The local government certainly cannot stand alone. This is also considering that Sukabumi Regency has many young people and needs support from various partners. We appreciate the Gema Cita program that managed to reach a total of 1,153 participants. In the future, I hope that there will be no more child marriages,” said Ade.

Collaboration Against Child Marriage

In her remarks, Nazla Mariza, Influencing and Program Implementation Director of Plan Indonesia expressed her appreciation to various partners who succeeded in reducing the child marriage rate in Sukabumi below the RPJMN target.

“We appreciate the Sukabumi District government for various efforts such as Stranas PPA, the inclusion of child welfare in the RPJMD, and the formation of the Task Force. Through Gema Cita, we are here to encourage collaboration and capacity building of peer educators, as well as strengthening PATBM and SRA which have even been replicated. We are happy that our program has become a sustainable effort. This is the initial capital, and we hope that the existing capacity can continue to grow and get meaningful and meaningful support,” said Nazla.

GEMA CITA has successfully mentored 222 peer educators whose sustainability is evident in the schools’ commitment to continue this good work. Two schools even trained new peer educators in addition to those trained by Plan Indonesia, totaling 31 and 35 respectively.

As part of this program, various advocacy efforts have also been carried out by 20 GEMA CITA young advocates to encourage the Sukabumi District Government (Regent) to sign a revision of the Regent Regulation (Perbup) on Child Marriage Prevention (PPA) by including the PPA Regional Action Plan (RAD) and Case Reporting and Handling Flow Mechanism as well as the PPA Task Force Team Decree.

Elis Saja’ah, Head of the Sukabumi District Child Rights Fulfillment Division, explained that the presence of the GEMA CITA program in 2022 has contributed to increasing public awareness of child marriage prevention and its more effective handling in Sukabumi District.

“In addition to the reporting and case handling mechanisms, GEMA CITA has strengthened the PATBM and SRA teams who are also at the forefront of preventing child marriage. In addition, financial support is also needed for the sustainability of this good effort,” Elis added.

This was welcomed by Reni from PATBM Warungkiara who stated that PATBM Warungkiara Village and PATBM Sukaraja Village received budget support from the Village Fund, respectively 10 million rupiah a year and 17 million rupiah a year after advocacy from GEMA CITA.

Rati Handayani, First Expert Planner at the Directorate of Family, Women, Children, Youth and Sports (KPAPO) of Bappenas who also attended the workshop also conveyed what Bappenas has done to prevent child marriage.

“Bappenas has included the prevention of child marriage in the 2025 Government Work Plan (RKP) as a priority and the draft RPJMN 2025-2029 is filled with the vision and mission of the elected president.”

Children and Youth: Frontliners Against Child Marriage

The Gema Cita program is a lesson learned that youth engagement and joint advocacy efforts have resulted in positive changes and ultimately achieved the goal of eliminating child marriage in Indonesia.

Harfi, one of the peer educators and Young Advocates of GEMA CITA, expressed that it is important for young people to be involved in programs, especially those related to child marriage prevention and others, from planning, implementation, to reporting.

“By being involved, we understand the root of the problem and the solution. We once assisted a friend who was pregnant and was going to be married off and planned to leave school, but we managed to prevent it and the school put her in an open school so that she could still go to school,” said Harfi.

The workshop held today (25/09) in the PKK Hall of Pendopo Bupati Sukabumi involved program participants and other development partners in Sukabumi District including the Ministry of Home Affairs, KPPPA, Sukabumi Provincial Government who shared lessons learned, various district-level Regional Apparatus Organizations, village governments, children’s forums, SRA teams, and PATBM and religious and traditional leaders.