Bali, Indonesia – At the age of just 24, Anggraini Sariastuti has already faced down an ovarian tumor and fended off severe pressure to marry early. Today, she’s proudly standing up for the health and reproductive rights of the 65 million young people in Indonesia.
Sariastuti was first asked to marry at the tender age of just 17, but the proposal wasn’t from her boyfriend, it was from his parents, who asked her mum and dad for permission for her to marry their son.
“Many parents in my hometown had little or no education, and always thought it would be better to marry earlier rather than stay in a longer relationship and risk having an unwanted pregnancy,” explains Sariastuti, who eventually married her boyfriend in September 2015.
Teen marriage is common in the city of Solo, in the Indonesian province of Central Java where Sariastuti grew up. Many young people of the same age – and even younger – had already dropped out of school and were married with children when she received the proposal.
And yet more pressure was soon piled on, as Sariastuti discovered an ovarian tumor, something she had never heard of before.
“It was a big wake-up call for me when I had to have surgery at a young age to remove a tumor from my left ovary,” she says.
“When I was young I never really received the necessary information to look after my health, I was even scared to visit a doctor. It was kind of a taboo for unmarried women to receive any medical screening.”
Fear, pressure and indignation at social mores -- including lack of access to crucial information -- brought about a focused, steely drive in the young woman to resist the push to marry early and to meet her own personal goals. So she worked hard for a degree in public health from the University of Indonesia.
“Even though my husband’s parents persisted for us to marry when we were teenagers, I strongly refused it because I wanted to continue my education to reach my future goals and dreams,” she says.
This week, as a youth volunteer with UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, she addressed 250 young people, as well as policy-makers, practitioners and experts on family planning at a youth pre-conference in the run-up to the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) in Nusa Dua, Bali.
“Comprehensive reproductive health information and access to health services is vital to help empower young people,” she told the crowd.
“We need to work together with parents, families, the government, teachers, educational institutions and health personnel to fully recognize young peoples’ needs for non-judgmental understanding, accurate information, adequate health services and comprehensive education.”
The ICFP, held every other year, brings together family planning policy-makers and experts to assess the state of family planning, share best practices and help chart the future of family planning programmes around the world. UNFPA, which works at every level to support access to safe, voluntary family planning, is a key partner in convening this event.
Margaretha Sitangga, UNFPA’s Programme Officer for Youth and Adolescent sexual reproductive health in Indonesia says: "Investing in adolescents and youth, and adopting and implementing policies that protect their rights, are a priority to help shape them into pivotal agents for the health and wealth of society.”
“Both parents and adolescents should understand that continuing education is the best way to have a better future,” notes Sariastuti.
“Let us not only think about what young people need, but also what can young people do.”
Read more: Can family planning help the world? Lessons from Indonesia
