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S. Jakarta arranges free sterilization for poor parents
If the South Jakarta Family Planning Agency has its way, people will line up for free surgery at Tria Dipa Hospital on Jl
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If the South Jakarta Family Planning Agency has its way, people will line up for free surgery at Tria Dipa Hospital on Jl. Pasar Minggu Raya this Saturday.
South Jakarta Family Planning Coordinating Board head Sonson Sanusi said the municipality had allocated funds to provide poor people that have more than three children with free sterilization surgery.
"We chose Tria Dipa private hospital to carry out the free surgeries for people in South Jakarta because their fee is low and the services are good," Sonson told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
The health agency will pay the hospital Rp 2 million for each sterilization.
Sonson said men now have a greater awareness of the need to support the family planning program, which traditionally served more women than men.
"This year, we have sterilized 313 people in South Jakarta, and 142 of them are men," Sonson added.
Fatur, a family planning campaigner in Pancoran subdistrict, South Jakarta, said that as many men as women were now coming in for the sterilization procedure. In the past, it was mostly women who underwent the surgery.
"In Pancoran subdistrict alone, nine women and 11 men were sterilized this year," Fatur said.
He added more than 20 men in his area had already registered to have the surgery.
"They had to pass a series of health tests to prove they are in a good condition," Fatur said.
In Pesanggrahan subdistrict, South Jakarta, about 15 women and 14 men have registered for sterilization surgery.
"Both husbands and wives have similar attitudes to joining the sterilization program," said Printansih, another family planning campaigner in Pesanggrahan.
Tria Dipa Hospital will be performing both vasectomies for men and tubal ligation for women.
A vasectomy is surgery to cut the vas deferens, the tubes through which a man's sperm travels. Tubal ligation is surgery to close a woman's fallopian tubes so that her eggs can not reach the uterus, thus preventing pregnancy.
Family planning program campaigners, like Fatur and Printansih, said they did not have any difficulties promoting the sterilization methods to people in their area because most of them knew about the family planning program.
"Most of them believe the technique is better than other contraception methods such as pills, condoms and IUD (intrauterine devices)," Printansih said.
"We only ask them to think twice before deciding on the surgeries because they are very difficult to reverse."
According to Fatur and Printansih, their clients are mostly lower-class people. These people get free sterilization surgery from the government and receive Rp 150,000 each after the sterilization.
"Of course, they have to prove they are poor by providing some subdistrict papers," Fatur said.
"The compensation money is to fulfill their daily needs while they rest after surgery."
Sterilization surgery is one of the ways to slow population growth. Data from the board showed that between 2002 and 2007, Indonesia's birthrate was 2.6 percent.
According to the board, Indonesia's population will reach 227 million by the end of the year.
Indonesia is the fourth most populated country in the world after China, India and the United States. (naf)
