Bandung City Council Proposes Adaptive Population Administration Bylaw for Digital Transformation and Resident Mobility

The Bandung City Council (DPRD) has proposed a new Regional Regulation (Raperda) on Population Administration to replace the existing Peraturan Daerah Number 8 of 2012 in conjunction with Peraturan Daerah Number 4 of 2015. The Chairman of Commission I of the Bandung City DPRD, Radea Respati, stated that the drafting of this new regulation is a strategic step to align local policy with national legal developments, the digital transformation of public services, and increasingly complex population dynamics. As a metropolitan centre for education, trade, and services, Bandung experiences high resident mobility, including a growing number of non-permanent residents. This condition demands a more adaptive and accurate administration system capable of meeting technological advancements and community needs.

Data from the Bandung City Population and Civil Registration Office indicates the city’s population has reached 2,605,916 people. Despite improvements in service coverage, there remain 12,988 residents of mandatory age who do not yet possess an electronic identity card (KTP-el), and 15,637 children without birth certificates. Furthermore, the activation rate for Digital Population Identity (IKD) is only 19.35 percent, falling short of the national target of 30 percent. The city has also recorded at least 2,372 non-permanent residents. The urgency of this bylaw is further highlighted by recent public phenomena, such as a confinement case in a boarding house in Bandung Regency. Beyond the criminal aspects handled by law enforcement, the incident underscores the critical need for orderly population administration, particularly for non-permanent residents in temporary housing like boarding houses, rented rooms, and apartments.

Respati emphasised that a well-ordered population administration regulation serves as an early detection system, aids in demographic mapping, and strengthens regional governance to ensure every resident is accurately recorded. He argued that the recent case demonstrates that the current administration of population data is not optimal. Through this proposed bylaw, he is pushing for the strengthening of mandatory reporting for non-permanent residents via the Temporary Residence Certificate (SKTS), in accordance with population administration provisions, rather than resorting to ineffective measures that do not resolve the core administrative issues.