Indonesia's Village Head Crisis: How Many in the Last Four Years?

Zainal Mustamin, Director of Religious Affairs Office (KUA) Development, stated that the Ministry of Religious Affairs (Kemenag) currently faces a shortage of functional officiant personnel. The national need for officiants reaches 16,263.

"Considering the need, we can say that we are currently facing an officiant emergency. Furthermore, a significant number of officiants, reaching 2,383, are set to retire by 2027," said Zainal Mustamin, Director of Religious Affairs Office (KUA) and Sakinah Family Development, in a statement on the Kemenag website on Wednesday (30/8/2023).

Referring to Kemenag's One Data system, the cumulative number of functional officiant personnel has steadily decreased from 2019 to 2022.

The highest number was recorded in 2019, at 7,849 officiants. The number then continuously declined over the last three years, reaching only 6,137 officiants in 2022.

Meanwhile, the number of officiants as of August 2023 is recorded at 9,054. However, this data has not yet been verified or recorded in Kemenag's One Data system.

Zainal explained that this situation forces currently serving officiants to handle more than one sub-district KUA. In addition to retirements, many officiants have also passed away.

"Because, in fact, besides many retiring, many of our officiants have also passed away, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic," Zainal clarified.

Despite this, Zainal stated that Kemenag continues to strive to address the officiant shortage. He mentioned that 950 additional officiants have been recruited through the Government Employee with Work Agreement (PPPK) program in 2023.

"God willing, there will be further recruitment of officiants through the PPPK program next year. We hope that those interested should prepare themselves from now on," he urged.