Starting this year, Jakarta brides- and grooms-to-be will not only have to adhere to the same state-recognized religion but their physical health will also be subject to government monitoring.

The issuance of Gubernatorial Regulation No. 185/2017 on counseling and medical checks for couples getting married necessitates them to undergo medical checks at community health centers. Those who have undergone the test may then obtain a marriage-eligibility certificate from the city’s health agency.

The Jakarta administration plans to enforce the regulation this year, as a means to map disease prevalence and to control the spread of contagious and genetic diseases.

The certificate, which shows that the couple have undergone several tests including blood tests and tests for HIV and hepatitis, will have to be submitted to a religious affairs office in order to get a marriage form. Although the regulation stipulates that it is voluntary, Health Agency head Widhiastuti said that “it is something positive” so undergoing the test is “highly encouraged”.

For Timotius Devin, 26, a resident of Pondok Kelapa in East Jakarta, who plans to marry his longtime girlfriend in the near future, the regulation is quite problematic. Although he supports the idea of curbing disease transmission, the issuance of the certificate evokes a sense that the right to marriage is conditional on one’s health.

“Love should be universal, whether people are sick or not and physically able or not. It would be unfair if people cannot tie the knot just because they have a health problem,” said Devin.

He is also worried that the regulation may lead to his medical records being exposed to unrelated parties. “It’s a private matter and it should not involve anyone other than doctors.”

Bella Dwita Sari, 26, from Petamburan in Central Jakarta concurred, saying an individual’s health was a “matter of privacy in which the government should not interfere”.

The regulation comes against the backdrop of a high prevalence of AIDS in Jakarta. According to the Jakarta office of the National AIDS Commission (KPAP), the number of people living with AIDS in Jakarta increased from 8,093 people in December 2015 to 8,656 in December 2016.

Widhiastuti said the policy was important regardless of whether the number increased or not, since the administration aimed to achieve zero AIDS sufferers by 2030.

“The point is the couples will know their health conditions. It’s like an ordinary medical checkup, the difference is that it’s free and facilitated by the administration,” Widhiastuti said.

Those who are diagnosed with particular illnesses will be required to undergo further steps to check their health. “We have no intention of forbidding ill people getting married. It is only for us to know their health condition so we know what steps need to be taken, whether they will need therapy, counseling or a referral,” she said.

“It will also allow us to learn which areas have a high prevalence, for example, so we can provide sufficient medicine. We should do everything based on data.”

She explained that the reason the tests had to be through the marriage process was because administratively it was more organized, as couples had to register with their subdistrict offices before getting the marriage form at a religious affairs office.

“That’s why we’ve asked the religious office to persuade them to take the tests,” she said.

If a couple is found to have a potentially transmittable or genetic disease “they will know the risks and what to do. If they were ignorant about their health condition, that would be problematic”, she said.

By understanding the health problems they might have, Widhiastuti said, the administration could help guide the couple to practice a healthy lifestyle that would enable them not to transmit the condition to their offspring.

Cholil Nafis of the Indonesian Ulema Council criticized the policy, saying that such a regulation could end up violating the rights of people seeking to get married.

“The administration needs to be consistent as to whether it is mandatory or not. If the regulation is not binding it can’t be effective, so the regulation is useless,” he said, adding that a couple could get married without necessarily wishing to have children.

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