Agency campaigns for men’s contraception

JAKARTA: The participation of men in family planning is the right step to boost gender equality and achieve the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), an official says.

National Family Planning Coordination Agency (BKKBN) head Sugiri Syarief said that in the last 30 years, the success of family planning relied on women using contraception.

“In 2002, contraception usage was 60.3 percent. Men contributed 1.3 percent, and only from condom usage,” he said, as quoted by Antara news agency.

To boost men’s participation, the agency, Airlangga University in Surabaya and PT Indofarma signed an MoU last October on research, development, production, marketing, familiarization and distribution of a new form of men’s contraception made from the extract of Justicia gendarussa leaves.

“We hope the new invention will create an alternative choice for men’s contraception,” he said.

Sugiri said although the MDGs did not specifically address the issue of overpopulation, family planning and reproductive health, there had been many studies showing that MDGs could not be achieved if the basic problem of demography was not well-managed. — JP