Bappenas: New Family Planning Program Needed as Population Growth Slowing
Translator
Editor
16 May 2023 13:57 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Minister of National Development Planning or Bappenas Head Suharso Monoarfa emphasized that the government needs to formulate a new family planning (KB) policy since population growth continues to slow down.
“To realize balanced growth, the government needs to develop a new era of family planning policies,” Suharso said at Jakarta Convention Center in a release of the country’s population projection for 2020-2050, on Tuesday, May 16, 2023.
In the projection compiled by Bappenas and the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the population growth for the period of 2020-2045 averages 0.67 percent annually, and that keeps dropping every year.
The population aged 0-14 years decreased from 24.56 percent in 2020 to 19.61 percent in 2045, while aged 65 years and over increased by 6.16 percent in 2020 to 14.61 percent in 2045.
Based on the business-as-usual trend scenario, Suharso said the total fertility rate will continue to fall to 1.9 in 2045 and the infant mortality rate will be 7.85.
With the same scenario, the country’s population in 2045 is projected to reach 324 million or an increase of 54.42 million people from 2020. Therefore, he believed that the government needs to strengthen communication and information strategies, as well as family planning education, according to regional conditions and target groups.
Suharso underlined that the policy is fundamental to ensure that young couples are ready to have a family. In particular, they are socio-economically ready to produce quality children.
Bappenas also recommended the government prioritize the care economy to maintain a balance between women's and men's work participation with a good parenting system.
There are also five policies that need to be implemented by the government to anticipate demographic changes. They are realizing balanced population growth, ensuring the quality of human resources to fill the gaps, supporting population aging in the future, encouraging population movement to create more even population distribution, and maintaining a balance of rural and urban development.
RIANI SANUSI PUTRI
Editor's Choice: Police: 'Polisi RW' to Become a National Program
Click here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News
