Two children campaign to continue
Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post, Boyolali, Central Java
Despite some progress, the government will continue to trudge on with the family planning program known for its slogan "two children are enough" in order to achieve zero population growth in the fourth most populous country in the world.
The people have long since become familiar with the program and its slogans but its results have fallen far short of the goal.
The program carried out by the National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN), succeeded in lowering the annual growth rate to 1.49 percent in 2000 from 2.32 percent in 1970s.
Nevertheless, at the 2000 rate -- assumed to be unchanged now -- four million newborn babies have to be clothed, fed and educated annually.
"At first, (in the 1970s) BKKBN trained volunteers to promote the program to persuade (productive) couples to have small, but prosperous families," Sarsanto Sarwono, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association, said after the inauguration of a Primary Clinical Training Center (P2KP) in Boyolali, Central Java recently.
Despite the progress that has attracted many other developing countries to learn from Indonesia, the number of people participating in the program has not reached the target.
The average contraception usage rate in the archipelago, according to the 2003 Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS), was 60.3 percent.
To reach the zero population growth, contraceptive usage has to reach at least 73 percent, or the total number of babies per woman, must decrease to 2.2 from the current 2.6.
BKKBN has intensified its campaign to promote permanent solutions such as vasectomy and tubectomy, as well as long-term contraception such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) and hormone implants. They are trying to discourage women from using short- term solutions such as "the pill" or 3-month hormone injections.
Due to an almost total absence of awareness about the safety of some of the long-term methods coupled with the desire by most couples to eventually have babies, shorter term contraceptives are still preferred.
BKKBN Chief Sumarjati Arjoso has conceded that more than 75 percent of couples using contraception have currently chosen pills (25.8 percent) or the hormone injections (49.7 percent).
This is a sharp increase compared to a 1997 survey, when people involved in the program using pills accounted for 30 percent and injections 39 percent from the total number.
"These methods require high self-discipline and continuous supplies and thus have a higher drop-out rate as compared to long-term ones," she said.
Boyolali regent Djaka Srijanta offered another way to increase contraceptive use by encouraging husbands to participate actively in the program.
According to BKKBN's 2003 data, only 0.6 percent of married men of productive age in the country used condoms and 0.7 percent have had a vasectomy.
"Vasectomy is safer and has no side-effects," said Srijanta, who had his own operation years ago.
The family planning program, however, has been given much less attention following the implementation of the regional autonomy in January 2001, under which BKKBN is now controlled by regional administrations.
Many regions are committed to promoting the programs but many others have paid less attention to it.
The 2003 IDHS showed that 15 of 32 provinces had contraception usage lower than 60 percent with the highest being 75.6 percent in Yogyakarta and the lowest of 34.8 percent in East Nusa Tenggara.
"Contraception usage in Boyolali stands at 79 percent. However, we see family planning as imperative to decrease the poverty level in the regency," said Srijanta.
As many as 158 of 410 regencies and municipalities have made bylaws to continue implementing the family planning program while the remaining 132 are still drafting theirs.