Easier access to condoms promoted at health clinics

Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The national family planning agency has never been this friendly in its treatment of men.

For as long as people care to remember, the state-sponsored family planning program has always focused on women for a variety of reasons.

Over the past few months, however, the National Family Planning Coordinating Body (BKKBN) has been doing everything it can to reassure men that they, too, are responsible for planning their family size and protecting their health.

BKKBN is practicing a new concept corporate clinic to offer family planning services to men. On offer are condoms and consultation in matters relating to male contraception, such as where to find the best hospitals for vasectomy operations.

Siswanto Agus Wilopo, BKKBN deputy chairman on reproductive health said on Tuesday that the initiative was aimed at "giving men easier access to family planning services."

"When condoms are available at the clinic, they will not have go to the trouble of dropping by the drugstore on their way home when they want to buy condoms," he said.

The program was initiated also with the consideration that reproductive clinics offering family planning services for men are rare.

The government has set an ambitious target for the male- friendly clinic program. By the end of 2004, men taking part in the family planning program is expected to go up to 8 percent from the present 1.8 percent with a total of 25 million participants.

Siswanto said that the government's efforts to bring the family planning program closer to men are encouraging. The campaign also hopes to counter the traditional Indonesian perception that condoms are usually associated with promiscuity.

"The wife will suspect that her husband has another woman when she finds condoms in his pocket," he said.

BKKBN officials had approached several major companies who run their own clinics. The Indonesian Business Association (Aspindo) has shown enthusiasm for the idea, Siswanto claimed.

To show that it is serious about the male-friendly clinic idea, BKKBN offers professional consultations to companies which need it. It also offers the clinics cheaper contraceptives.

"Hopefully, the program will succeed and the companies will see fewer of its female employees take maternity leave," Siswanto said.