The high annual birth rate of 730,000 on average in West Java is attributable to women getting married early, at around the age of 18, says West Java National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN) secretary Safrudin Hidayat.
The West Java BKKBN recorded the number of youths marrying at a young age stood at 12 percent, or around 8.4 million fertile couples.
“Hopefully, the number can be taken down to 600,000 annually,” said Safrudin in Bandung recently.
Safrudin added that West Java was facing a serious problem in curbing population growth.
The population census temporarily listed around 45 million people in the province, thus making it the biggest province in Indonesia.
As the census indicates, West Java’s population may exceed the provisional projection of 43 million this year, assuming the population growthstands at 1.79 percent annually.
Safrudin said marriages of youth would not only lead to a surge in the birth rate, but other social problems such as a high maternal mortality rate, which stands at 321 deaths per 100,000 births.
He said that the BKKBN would expand its campaign on reproductive health and the need to use
contraceptives by assigning more field workers.
He added there were currently only 2,400 family planning counselors compared to the 5,900 that are needed in West Java.
Safrudin also said the limited number of family planning counselors was an impediment to the new family planning program participated in by around 6.2 million fertile couples in the province.
With decentralization, the infrastructure of the KB program was left in tatters. In 2003, only 30 percent of cities and regencies in Indonesia had family planning agencies.
Because many family planning programs were devolved to regions, the previously authoritative BKKBN, which played a key role in the national KB program implementing directives through a linear chain of command, had to take on a more consultative approach with cities and regencies.
BKKBN was tasked with reducing the fertility rate to 2.2, the population growth from 1.7 percent to 1.3 percent, and raising awareness about methods of contraception. Currently the fertility rate stands at 2.6.
BKKBN head Sugiri Syarief urged every provincial administration to raise their commitment to increase the number of family planning counselors.
The efforts, he said, are crucial to support the program of keeping Indonesia’s population rate at
1.3 percent, the figure stipulated since 2000.
“The number of family planning counselors was 35,000 before the reform [in 1998],” Sugiri said.
“But in 2005, the number dropped to 19,999, but currently, it has risen to 22,000.”
The BKKBN has set a target of two counselors in each village to achieve the ideal number of around 40,000 counselors in Indonesia.
“I have asked the provincial administrations to urge regents and mayors to appoint more family planning counselors,” he said.
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