Resident in Remote Areas Still Struggle to Obtain Proper Civil Status
Soe, East Nusa Tenggara. For people living in remote villages of East Nusa Tenggara, basic civil registration requires a costly, hours-long journey to the district capital. Many never embark on it. Millions of Indonesian children are not registered, which means that their names and rights as citizens are not officially recognized or counted. According to data from the Ministry of Home Affairs, more than 11 million, or 15 percent of those below the age of 18, do not have birth certificates. According to Plan International, nearly 80 percent of children in East Nusa Tenggara did not have their birth certificates in 2015.