Today, Indonesia’s population growth has sent a worrisome signal.
he global population reached 7.2 billion people as World Population Day was commemorated on July 11. Indonesia ranks as the fourth most populated nation with 249 million inhabitants. Due to shifts in political and economic interests, family planning programs are slowing down in many parts of the world, including Indonesia.
Under the National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) Indonesia’s family planning program was once one of the most exemplary programs in developing regions. Baltimore’s John Hopkins University even named one of its meeting rooms after Haryono Suyono, the longest serving BKKBN head.
Today, Indonesia’s population growth has sent a worrisome signal. According to the BKKBN, the population had grown in 2011 to 241 million people — exceeding the national projection of 237.6 million — with an annual growth rate of 1.49 percent. By 2045, the population could reach 450 million. As Indonesia ranks only 108th of 187 in the Human Development Index, reviving the family planning program is urgent.
Hence, the government is committed to realize universal access to sexual and reproductive health — one of the Sustainable Development Goals — in joining Family Planning 2020 (FP2020), a global partnership that supports the rights of women and girls to decide, freely and for themselves, whether, when and how many children they want to have.
Indonesia’s commitment in FP2020 is to increase funding and to develop a family planning policy framework that will result in increased access to sexual reproductive health services for more individuals.
Unfortunately, the family planning program, including sexual reproductive health education, still faces challenges in Indonesia in the context of low access to relevant education and gender inequality.
According to a joint study by the University of Gadjah Mada medical school’s Center for Reproductive Health and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Program, approximately 2.4 percent of Indonesian adolescents were married and around 9.5 percent of girls aged 15-19 had already given birth or were pregnant at the time of the study.
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