Family planning program falters in Kupang

Family planning program falters in Kupang

Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang

The family planning program in impoverished East Nusa Tenggara
has failed to contain a rising birth rate amid reports of
widespread malnutrition in the province.

The program, introduced nationally by the New Order government
in 1967 with the popular slogan "Two children are enough", seems
to have lost some of its effectiveness in the province since
1998, when the country went through a political transition.

The head of East Nusa Tenggara's National Family Planning
Board, Soter Parera, blamed the increasing birth rate in the
province, which has resulted in a population growth of about 1.79
percent annually, on several factors, including the local
practice of placing more value in boys than girls.

"East Nusa Tenggara people still treasure boys as heirs. Even
if a family already has three girls, it would still not be enough
without a boy. So it is not unusual for a family to have 10
children, including boys who have a higher social status in
society," Parera said.

The director of the Kupang City Women's House Foundation, Yuli
Ndolu, and Sister Sisilia, an activist at the Women's Caring
Forum in Belu regency, criticized the practice of according boys
with a higher social status.

"Boys and girls are the same. The maternal mortality rate in
East Nusa Tenggara is among the highest in the country because
many women, in the quest for a male heir, are forced to have
babies after they are already older or not physically healthy
enough to have a baby," Sisilia said.

"The perception that boys are everything for the family is
also responsible for restricting girls' rights," Yuli said.

She said the perception also led to the phenomenon of boys
enjoying a better education, while girls stayed at home helping
their mothers.

According to 2004 data from the provincial family planning
board, the infant mortality rate in the province was at 59 per
1,000 births, while the maternal mortality rate was 602 for every
100,000 births.

Nationwide, the infant mortality rate was 35 per ever 1,000
births and the maternal mortality rate was 307 per 100,000 births
in 2001.

However, not everyone agrees that boys have a higher social
status in the province. A member of the Kupang Bishop's Justice
and Peace Commission, Father Florensius Maxi un Bria, said boys
and girls were viewed and treated the same, and that the issue
had nothing to do with rising birth rates.

He said it was sad that many impoverished families had more
than four children, which he said would only compound these
families' problems. "The widespread cases of malnutrition in the
province is an example."

For example, WZ Johanis Hospital in Kupang is treating a
severely malnourished boy who is the 11th child of a poor family
in Oesao village, East Kupang district. The 11-year-old boy
weighed just 11 kilograms when he first arrived at the hospital
three weeks ago. He is now 17 kilograms.

The head of East Nusa Tenggara's Development Planning Board,
Umbu Sorung, and the head of Belu regency's Family Planning
Office, Valens Pareira, said local administrations planned to
reevaluate the family planning program in their regions.

The administrations, they said, also planned to hire more
family planning campaigners in remote areas to reach all
residents.

"Many of the family planning campaigners have been transferred
to other offices. In the future, the administrations will recruit
more family planning campaigners to be assigned to villages,"
Valens said.

A community leader in Soe, Timor regency, Frederik Hendrik
Fobia, said government officials, religious figures and activists
played an important role in changing perceptions and lowering the
birth rate.

"The people should not always be blamed. This is a big
challenge for the family planning board. According to local
customs, men are the heirs in families," he said.

An Atambua resident, Yoseph Rasi, 46, however, blamed the
rising birth rate on people's lack of understanding and access to
birth control.

"My wife began using contraception after our second child was
born but the pills were not working. We switched to the IUD but
that did not work. My wife died when giving birth to our 10th
child," said the father of four girls and six boys.