Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Coordinating Minister for People`s Welfare Aburizal Bakrie said the pace of population growth in Indonesia has reached an alarming level.
Speaking at the opening of a Family Planning National Working Meeting here on Thursday, the minister said if the government failed to do something about the population growth rate, the country would face a runaway population boom in the next 10 to 15 years.
Aburizal said the average birth rate in 2006 was recorded at 2.6 baby per fertile woman ,and the figure had remained unchanged until 2007, while the population was increasing by an average of 2.6 million per year.
He said the high population growth and birth rates in Indonesia were worsened by an uneven spread of the population.
"If we fail to do something about it immediately, it will become a burden to all of us. Therefore, both men and women have to optimize the family planning program," Aburizal said.
He said since the introduction of the regional autonomy system, family planning programs were being implemented much less intensively across the country.
The the decline happened because regional administrations played a much diminished role in the promotion of family planning programs, in the recruitment of field family planning information officers, and the provision of funds.
Meanwhile, National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN) chief Sugiri Sjarief admitted the past five years had seen a stagnation in family planning programs.
No comments:
Post a Comment