RI to launch its second ambitious population scheme

RI to launch its second ambitious population scheme

By Santi WE Soekanto

In conjunction with National Family Day which falls today,
President Soeharto is scheduled to launch the second phase of the
25-year-old National Family Planning Program. The Jakarta Post
examined this development and interviewed the Program's
architect, Minister of Population Haryono Suyono. The minister
also commented on demands to review traditional family concepts
on the basis of human rights.

JAKARTA (JP): In Pati, a small town in Pati regency in Central
Java, it's a matter of pride to have the front side of one's
house stenciled with a blue-circle with the initials KB (Keluarga
Berencana-family planning) inside. It means that the residents
are participants of the family planning program and use some kind
of contraception.

Every several hundred meters, the same blue circle appears in
almost every building, rice mill and village office; all serving
as silent reminders for villagers to join the program. There are
not so silent reminders, too, like midwives, "village cadres",
and members of the Family Welfare Movement, PKK, who take it upon
their shoulders to go door-to-door finding new "acceptors," as
contraceptive users are called.

Young women volunteering to become extension workers in
Kiaracondong subdistrict, Bandung, West Java, set aside one or
two days each month to educate other women about the family
planning program.

They use all forms of persuasion, from gently coaxing to
pressure, in order to convince their peers to join family
planning. "What? You're pregnant again? How are you going to feed
all your children?" a woman volunteer was overheard saying to her
neighbor.

Women in a Jakarta hospital discussed contraception the same
way their mothers swapped recipes. "Oh, I can't stand using
condoms," one woman exclaimed, without so much as a hint of
embarrassment. "So I chose spiral (intra-uterine device)
instead."

"Oh, spiral makes my period irregular, so I prefer Norplant,"
another replied.

These women are proof of a very marked social change which has
been taking place over the last 25 years. Several years before
President Soeharto initiated efforts to curb population growth in
1969, the common view was that "Indonesia is a large country, it
will feed all its people."

The government persevered, managing to reduce the country's
fertility rate from 5.605 in 1969 to today's 3.022 children per
family.

The government wants the rate to drop even further, to an
annual 2.6 percent by the end of the sixth Five-Year Development
Plan in 1999.

In spite of various difficulties, including initial
resistance from religious groups who believed that birth control
violated their faith, the nation managed to reduce population
growth from a potentially unsupportable 2.3 percent a year from
1971-1980 to 1.97 percent a year from 1980-1990.

Indonesia's population, which stood at 120 million in 1969,
now stands at 189 million.

Second phase

The family planning movement was intended to create "small,
happy and prosperous families." However, the first 25 years
succeeded only in achieving the first part of the goal and rather
neglected the quality of those small families, according to
Minister of Population Haryono Suyono.

The government plans to use the coming 25 years to realize the
happy and prosperous elements of the concept. In celebrating
National Family Day today, President Soeharto is scheduled to
launch the second phase of the movement, called the "small,
prosperous families as agents and beneficiaries of development"
movement.

"From now on, Indonesian families are entrusted with the task
of not only developing themselves, but also the others," Haryono
said.

He compared Indonesian families with American families which
he said "are very individualistic in nature. For American
families, one's achievement is one's alone to enjoy. They don't
have to take care of others," he said.

"Indonesian families, on the contrary, have to pay some sort
of alms, and are responsible for helping reduce the poverty of
other families."

Indonesia's families will have to fulfill various
responsibilities, including protecting the social and cultural
environment, and developing their economic potential, he said.

As part of the campaign, the government has already begun a
nationwide program to map and register Indonesia's 38 to 40
million families.

They will be classified into the categories of "pre-
prosperous", "prosperous I" to "prosperous III" and "prosperous
III-A."

Those who are still unable to meet their own basic, daily
needs fall, of course, into the "pre-prosperous" category.
"Prosperous III-A" families are able to meet their basic
requirements, social and psychological needs, as well as
participate in social activities.

A set of simple indicators has been prepared, including the
amount of clothes a family member has and whether the family has
a dirt-floor house or one with a cement floor.

"I know these indicators seem to be simple, but they are
really workable," Haryono said.

Grassroots

One of the features of the first 25 years of the family
planning movement was the relinquishing of the initiative to
promote the program from the government to the people.

By establishing such a grassroots approach, community
organizations such as PKK, Mothers' Club and Family Planning Post
actively spread the program.

It was also these organizations which used pressure or
persuasion to get prospective participants to join.

Haryono indicated that the new movement will also make use of
this approach. "We are hoping to see that in the near future,
people will help one another in cementing their dirt floor so
that their prosperity rating can be elevated," he said.

The government is hoping that the movement will bring about
something beyond mere physical development. "What we are aiming
for is a change of attitude," Haryono said. "We want to see that
houses with cement floors will make residents more conscious of
hygiene and healthy living."

Through the movement, the government also wishes to encourage
people to build their economic potentials, he said
optimistically.

It is hoped, however, that the launching of the new movement
will learn from past mistakes and take steps not to repeat them.

Coercion, which was used in the initial phase of the family
planning movement by many parties, including local officials,
should never be seen again if the government wants true popular
participation.