Family planning program to remain important

Jakarta-wapresri.go.id. The National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) chairman Mr. Surya Chandra Surapaty paid a courtesy call to Vice President Jusuf Kalla at his office in Jakarta on Friday (Feb. 3).

In the visit, Surya who was accompanied by the board’s Principal Secretary Nofrijal, Deputy on Advocacy, Mobilization and Information Abidinsyah Siregar, and the Head of Planning Bureau Ipin ZA Husni, invited the Vice President to open BKKBN’s National Coordination Meeting which will be held on February 7, 2017, at Mercure Hotel in Ancol, Jakarta.

“The meeting this year will take the theme “Along with the Programs for Population, Family Planning, and Family Development (KKBPK), We Improve the Quality of Indonesian People with National Characters in the Framework of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia” and will be attended by representatives of all the local government across the country,” said Surya.

Surya further said, synergy and partnership between the central and local governments are important to optimize family planning program (KB).

“After the enactment of laws on local government in which some of their provisions state that family-planning and population programs are government flagship programs, local governments began to establish agencies that focus on the program,” said Surya.

In the meeting Surya also told the Vice President that BKKBN is now focusing its efforts on reducing the total fertility rate (TFR), increasing the participation of poor families in family-planning program, improving family resilience, implementing population control policy in development planning, and raising awareness of small-family norms in society.

In response, the Vice President welcomed the family planning program that was famous in the New Order era. He then insisted that the program which is aimed at improving the quality of human life to be done professionally and without any coercion.

Improving the quality of human life, continued the Vice President, can be seen from the factors of physical growth and education among the society.

During the meeting, the Vice President also observed the national population growth that reached 1.49%, which is exceeding the national target i.e. 1% per year.

The Vice President then suggested that family planning programs should be encouraged more in rural communities, as urban communities have already done so independently.

“(This is done) so that Indonesia will not become an aging country, where the number of older people is getting bigger after the implementation of the family planning program, as in Singapore and Japan,” he said.

The Vice President then advised that the instructors of family planning program have really good qualifications.

The Vice President further wished that the program be made central again among society.

“I think people already understand about family planning. We only need to remind them about it. Lately, it is seldom found campaigns of the program in public spaces or in the media,” he argued.

At the end of the meeting, the Vice President underlined that the population growth must be in line with the improved health services.

Accompanying the Vice President in the meeting were Head of the Secretariat of the Vice-President Mohamad Oemar, Deputy to the Vice President for Human Development Policy Support and Equitable Development Bambang Widianto, and Special Staff to Vice President on Poverty Reduction and Regional Autonomy Syahrul Udjud.

http://www.wapresri.go.id/menerima-kepala-bkkbn/