Jakarta, GIVnews.com – There is a saying in Indonesia that when you have plenty of kids, great fortune will follow. This seems to apply to the Halilintar family.
Businessman Halilintar Anofial Asmid and his wife Lenggogeni Faruk have 11 children together. They have appeared in various local television shows and even published a book. The family, which does not consider having so many children as a burden, says that compassion and a strong religious education will make sure that their children grow up well.
But aside from the fact that Halilintar and Lenggogeni are just one example of a couple that succeeded with raising many children, they have also been married for almost 20 years.
With such proverbs and cultural notions increasingly considered to be part of the past, what about young couples today? Do they heed the same old proverb and want more children, or is something like two children (one boy and one girl) preferable?
To control population growth, the Indonesian government created a program in the 1950s called the Planned Parenthood Association (Perkumpulan Keluarga Berencana), now called the National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN). This institution is responsible for matters related to family planning, such as providing contraception to citizens.
But despite the existence of BKKBN, for the last ten years, the fertility rate is still high, around 2.6 percent. On average, an Indonesian mother gives birth to around three babies. Moreover, population growth rate is at 1.49%, relatively higher compared to other developing countries.
"The 1.49 percent growth rate will increase the number (of people) in Indonesia by 4.5 million (individuals). That is equivalent to (the population of) Singapore. So, in 10 years, (it is equivalent to) 10 countries (the size of) Singapore," said Surya Chandra Surapaty, the BKKBN chief, as reported by kompas.com in September 2015.
Surya also shared that higher growth occurs in regions where education is lacking and poverty is rampant, such as East and West Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and Riau Islands.
Other contributing factors include improper usage of contraception and a lack of information about family planning. Even if couples use contraception, most of them only use short-term ones, such as shots and pills; contraception would work properly only if it is taken routinely.
Meanwhile, BKKBN field workers now only number around 17,000, compared to the initial 70,000, mostly due to a stagnant recruitment process.
BKKBN's current target is to reduce the fertility rate to 2.1 per 1,000 women by 2025, and to achieve that, there is still so much to be done.
Editor: Putra Muskita
Source: Indonesia Produces as Many Babies as the Entire Population of Singapore in 1 Year Period
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