Govt renew birth control program

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Anxious about Indonesia's growing population, the government has introduced a community-based family planning program at the neighborhood unit (RT) level to give people better access to contraception.

"The program will require a bigger role from the head of an RT and his or her secretary," National Family Planning Coordinating Board chairwoman Sumarjati Arjoso said on Thursday.

Under the new program, local residents will be able to obtain birth control pills and condoms from their neighborhood heads instead of having to go to community health centers (Puskesmas). In remote or rural areas it can take people hours to reach a Puskesmas.

The neighborhood head would also responsible for recording useful data about residents' fertility and their participation in the family planning program, Sumarjati told a discussion on population.

The new program, inaugurated by President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Wednesday, will also be expected to provide central administrations data about the health of the people in neighborhood areas.

"We should set a realistic target at the moment. When there are some (family planning) programs which do not work well, we should quickly think of and switch to something new," Sumarjati said.

The government has set a target of reducing the country's national average fertility rate of 2.6 children per mother in 2002 to 2.4 children by the end of this year.

"The rate of 2.6 children per mother is found among well- educated and middle-income background mothers, while among those who were not educated and poor the rate could reach three," she said.

A recent survey by the board revealed 97 percent of Indonesians understood the concept of family planning, but only 63 percent of them participated in family planning programs.

Under former president Soeharto, birth control programs were considered a success.

Following the fall of New Order, Sumarjati said the board needed to find innovative and creative ways to encourage people to again take part in family planning programs.

To boost the involvement of youths and fertile couples, the board is also installing condom vending machines in public places such as shopping centers and offices around the country.

However, when The Jakarta Post tried a machine spotted on the first floor of the board's head office in East Jakarta on Thursday, it did not work.

The machine took three Rp 500 coins but vended nothing.

Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country after China, India and the United States with 215 million people.

The U.S.-based Population Reference Bureau estimated in their report recently Indonesia's population could grow to 308 million by 2050 if the government did not encourage family planning.

Population growth has added to the country's major problems of unemployment, poverty, a high crime rate, illiteracy and poor health care.