Majority of married couples eschew condoms usage
Majority of married couples eschew condoms usage
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung
A member of the West Java legislative council's Commission E, Ani
Rukmini, said her husband did not like to use condoms.
"No thanks, dear. It feels uncomfortable and it will take too
long to finish," she quoted her husband as saying.
Eventually, Ani, who is concerned with the issue of sexually
transmitted diseases (STDs), especially HIV/AIDS, gave up trying
to get her husband to use a condom.
"Is it possible to produce a condom that does not require the
man to stop and put it on, because the urge will wear off," said
the woman during a visit to PT Mitra Rajawali Banjaran's condom
factory in Bandung, the largest of its kind in Indonesia.
Ani visited the factory along with scores of reporters from
Papua, South Sulawesi, Bali and West Java, as well as officials
from the National Family Planning Board (BKKBN) and the West Java
AIDS Mitigation Commission (KPAD).
Condoms are the second most popular method of contraception
among men taking part in the national family planning program,
after vasectomy. However, it is a distant second. A BKKBN survey
found 21 percent of couples feel uncomfortable using condoms. Of
this number, 54 percent said they were worried about condom
breakage, while the rest complained of limited sensation and
embarrassment when purchasing condoms.
Condom use remains low among couples in Indonesia. Statistics
show that only 0.3 percent of married couples use condoms for
contraception, said Riadi from the West Java KPAD.
This despite the fact that condoms are almost 100 percent
effective in preventing the spread of STDs and HIV/AIDS and have
been proven successful as a contraceptive device.
"Undoubtedly, condoms have the dual function of preventing
unplanned pregnancies as well as the spread of STDs, because we
do not know exactly what our partners do outside the house," said
Riadi.
According to BKKBN data, of the 5.2 million family planning
program participants in 2004, only about 15,770 used condoms for
contraception. This despite efforts to make condoms more
appealing by introducing condoms in different shapes and flavors.
According to the director of PT Mitra Rajawali Banjaran,
Maizal Yusuf, they even produced a "long love" type of condom
that came with a special lubricant designed to help maintain an
erection for up to two hours.
"What is lacking with our condoms? We make them in assorted
colors and flavors, such as pink for strawberry-flavored condoms,
brown for chocolate, green for apple ... but these efforts have
so far failed to get many people interested in using condoms,"
said Maizal.
Because of low demand, three machines at the factory, which
was officially opened by former president Soeharto in 1987, are
not operating at full capacity.
According to Maizal, the factory produces about 300,000
grosses of condoms annually, or about 30 percent of total
capacity.
The factory usually sends about 80 percent of its products to
the central and regional BKKBN offices. The rest are exported to
Dubai, Sri Lanka and Nigeria.
However, so far this year the company has not received any
orders from the BKKBN. To survive, it plans to export condoms to
Asian countries like Singapore and Malaysia in August, as well as
getting into the business of manufacturing disposable syringes.
The factory reached its highest production when it initially
started operations in the 1990s, before the fall of Soeharto,
when it was compulsory for every family to participate in the
national family planning program.
Following political changes in the country, the factory, which
employs 100 people, has seen its production numbers slip.
Maizal said he wished the government would join activists and
NGOs in promoting condom use.
He said the government lacked the political will to campaign
for condom use among couples.