Jokowi Allows BKKBN to Hire More Family Planning Counselors

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has given a green light to the National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) Chairman Hasto Wardoyo to increase the number of counselors for the family planning or KB program.

Presently, there are 2 million program officers and assistants across the country's villages, 13,000 counselors with the status of civil servants (PNS) and 9,600 non-PNS field counselors.

According to the President, hiring more counselors was necessary to provide guidance and family planning services in the community.

“Because what we need now is counselors who work in the field, professional ones who can directly interact with the people,” he said during the opening of the national meeting of the BKKBN’s Family, Population, and Family Planning Establishment (Bangga Kencana) in State Palace broadcasted via the Presidential Secretariat’s YouTube channel on Thursday, January 28.

Rather than just controlling the population, he went on to say that family planning counselors in villages were expected to improve the quality of families in order to develop healthy, prosperous, and happy small families.

“BKKBN has been doing a strategic program for the future of our nation and country because families are the pillar of the country. If all families live in a good quality of life, Indonesia will also become a prosperous country,” Jokowi underlined.

Also Read: BKKBN Comments on Sperm Donors in Family Resilience Draft Bill

DEWI NURITA