Bandung City Council Accelerates Population Policy Draft to Address Declining Birth Rates
Bandung City Council, through special committee 11 (Pansus 11), is accelerating discussion of a draft regional regulation (Raperda) on the Grand Design for Population Development (GDPK) 2025–2045. This step is being taken to ensure local policy aligns with central government regulations and can address population challenges in the future.
Sherly Theresia, a member of Pansus 11 at Bandung City Council, stated that several adjustments have been made to the initial draft following various inputs, including from the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas). This is important so that the policy being formulated does not overlap with central regulations, given that the government is also preparing a presidential regulation (Perpres) concerning the population grand design.
“God willing, it will be completed by the end of March. According to the latest information, the presidential regulation on the population grand design will be issued in June or July. Because of that, we must make adjustments so that this regional regulation aligns and can be implemented through regional mayor and regional council regulations,” Sherly said.
According to Sherly, one of the important issues receiving attention in the raperda discussion is the trend of declining birth rates in Bandung. This phenomenon is considered necessary to be anticipated early on because it could affect the city’s demographic structure in the long term.
“Marriage rates remain relatively high, but the desire to have children is actually decreasing. If this continues, within the next 10 years, the population structure could be dominated by elderly people,” she said.
She stressed the importance of educating young people about family life. In her view, having children is not a burden if properly prepared and supported by adequate policy.
“At least two children would be sufficient. That is far better than having none at all. There needs to be understanding that getting married and having children is not as difficult as imagined,” she said.
Additionally, the government also needs to prepare comprehensive regulations, particularly in the education sector and improvement of human resource quality. Sherly believes changes in the lifestyle of young people also influence their perspective on family and having children.
She mentioned the influence of social media, free-living lifestyles, and the perception that having children is a burden as distinct challenges in future population development.
“Population is not merely a matter of numbers, but quality. Readiness from birth, access to education, and readiness to enter the workforce must be ensured,” she said.
On the other hand, Sherly also acknowledged that there remain obstacles in the validity of population data in Bandung. As a tourism city and destination city, many migrants live or conduct activities in Bandung, which affects the recording of birth and death data.
“By numbers it is recorded, but it turns out they are not native Bandung residents. This is what we need to fix so that the database is truly accurate,” she concluded.