Minister of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Arifah Fauzi, at the opening of the World Children’s Day commemoration here on Thursday, explained that the increase in reports does not necessarily indicate a surge in cases, but rather reflects the success of campaigns encouraging children and communities to speak up.
Although she did not provide detailed figures on the rising reports, she stressed that the findings serve as a serious reminder to reinforce all aspects of protection.
“Economic factors, inappropriate parenting, environmental conditions, social dynamics, and early marriage remain the main drivers of violence against children, given its multidimensional nature,” she said.
She added that the rise in reporting should be viewed as an opportunity to better understand conditions on the ground so that multi-stakeholder policy interventions can be more accurately targeted and effectively address the issues comprehensively.
“Interventions must be carried out across sectors,” she emphasized.
Fauzi explained that the Ministry offers reinforcement through the Indonesia Shared Space (RBI) program, a collaborative platform for child and women protection.
The program is a transformation of the child-friendly village and urban neighborhood initiative implemented under the previous ministerial period.
She explained that RBI is not a physical facility, but a coordination forum connecting ministries, agencies, regional governments, the private sector, and communities to jointly address violence in an integrated way.
She added that the RBI program also needs strong parental involvement. According to her, this can be done in simple ways, such as listening to children’s voices as part of violence prevention, since families with bad communication tend not to recognize early signs of problems facing children.
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Translator: Prasetyo, Kenzu
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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