Government Declares January 15 as Village Day

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has established January 15 as Village Day.

This establishment is stipulated in Presidential Decree of the Republic of Indonesia Number 23 of 2024.

“I hereby establish January 15 as Village Day,” reads the First Dictum of the Presidential Decree which is accessible through the Cabinet Secretariat’s JDIH page.

The establishment of Village Day is based on the consideration that villages that function as elements of the Government that directly serve the community with all their diversity of customs and cultures play an important role in bringing equal prosperity and strengthening the framework of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI).

“To strengthen the roles of villages and to build understanding of the community and all stakeholders with the aim to make villages the subject of development, community empowerment, centers of regional growth and culture, as well as to publicize village progress, it is necessary to establish Village Day to remind all elements of the nation that villages are the foremost and the closest elements to the people in safeguarding the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia,” reads the Presidential Decree.

The establishment of January 15 as Village Day refers to the date of promulgation of Law Number 6 of 2014 on Villages.

“The promulgation of Law Number 6 of 2014 on Villages, on January 15, 2014, which comprehensively regulates the roles and positions of villages, serves as a momentum that provides clarity on the status and legal certainty of villages in the constitutional system of the Republic of Indonesia to bring justice for all Indonesian people,” reads the Presidential Decree.

The Second Dictum of this decree stipulates that Village Day is not a holiday.

“This Presidential Decree comes into force on the date of its enactment,” reads the Third Dictum of Presidential Decree Number 23 of 2024 which was enacted in Jakarta on July 31 2024. (UN) (TN/EP)