Enforced family planning deplored

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The National Family Planning Board (BKKBN) chief, Khofifah Indar Parawansa, has called for an end to past practices of coercing people to become family planning (KB) acceptors, saying that it was a form of human rights abuse.

"We have to admit that in the past, repressive methods were employed to force a person into becoming an acceptor," Khofifah, who is also state minister of the empowerment of women, said on Monday.

She was speaking after swearing in senior officials at the Yogyakarta BKKBN office.

A person should not be automatically given a contraceptive shot before being presented with other options such as birth control pills, implants and intrauterine devices (IUDs), she said.

Khofifah said that her office had been active in discouraging repressive actions.

Better training was being given to family planning officials throughout the country to make them realize that a person should first be given thorough counseling before being admitted into a family planning program, Khofifah added.

Everybody should respect other people's reproductive rights aside from giving them the proper understanding that a small but high quality family is better than a big, low quality family, the minister said.

"A low quality family is a burden, not only on the family but also to society," Khofifah explained.

Indonesia had been acknowledged in the past for its "success" in reducing the its birth rate through a nationwide family planning program.

In 1998, some 25,699,120 people were officially on the government's family planning scheme. The largest number, 34.7 percent, used injection methods while 28 percent used the pill and 20.2 percent used IUDs.

The remaining participants used condoms, implants and other methods. (swa/10)