The Director General of Population and Civil Registration of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Zudan Arif Fakrulloh invites all parties to take part in the Indonesian Movement Aware of Population Administration (GISA). According to him, the government’s efforts to provide population administration services must be supported by the public while also raising their awareness.
“For that, I invite the people of Asmat Regency, especially the Agats Diocese congregation to report their marital status by making a marriage certificate, or changing population data at the local Population and Civil Registration Service, so that they are listed in the Population and Civil Registration,” he said when meeting with Bishop Aloysius Murwito, in Agats Diocese, Asmat Regency, Tuesday (11/10/2022). The meeting with Bishop Aloysius Murwito was held during Zudan’s visit to Asmat district on 10 and 11 October 2022.
Zudan explained, GISA which was launched in 2018, is a national movement to raise the awareness of all parties about the importance of the orderly population administration.
“There are four objectives of GISA, namely being aware of ownership of population documents, aware of updating population data, aware of the use of population data for all affairs, and aware of population administration services that make the community happy,” he explained to Bishop Aloysius.
Meanwhile, Bishop Aloysius warmly welcomed the visit of Director General Zudan who was accompanied by the Head of Population and Civil Registration Asmat Regency, Marcelianus Belekubun.
Regarding the registration of marriages, he explained, Catholic marriages are basically one for eternity and cannot be divorced except by death, and are monogamous. But for some Asmat Papuans, they still hold on to their original culture, including the matter of marriage. Marriage is usually carried out in a traditional way without civil registration.
“In general, most of them have married, some even already have children. However, their marriage have not been blessed by the church,” said Bishop Aloysius.
Head of Population and Civil Registration Asmat Regency, Asmat Marcelinus, is committed to continuing to follow up with socialization among State Civil Apparatus and the community to encourage people to register marriages in the Population and Civil Registration.