JAKARTA: In a bid to curb child marriage in the country, Indonesia's parliament has revised its marriage law to lift the minimum age at which women can marry by three years to 19.
According to a statement on Indonesia's House of Representatives' website, there was unanimous agreement on the revision to the country's existing marriage law, CNN reported.
The previous minimum marriage age was 16 for girls and 19 for boys, and if parents wanted to authorise younger girls for marriage, there was no minimum age.
As per 'Girls Not Brides', a global partnership committed to ending child marriages, Indonesia has the eighth highest number of child brides in the world.
According to UNICEF, 14 per cent of girls in Indonesia are married before they turn 18 and one per cent are married before their 15th birthday.
Changes to existing laws will take place within three years.