Indonesia’s Surabaya bans absentee fathers from public services for dodging child support

As divorce rates continue to rise in Indonesia, more single mothers are bearing the brunt of financial hardship due to the challenges of collecting money for child support from their former spouses.For some women, they can get help from an initiative unique in the country – the East Java city of Surabaya bans men from accessing public services if they fail to pay court-ordered child support payments.First introduced in 2023, the initiative has been used to block administrative access to over 8,000 men since then, according to Irvan Wahyudrajad, head of the Population and Civil Registration Agency in Surabaya.