Indonesian province dangles cash for men to get vasectomy, in bid to slow population growth

The Star

14-06-2025

SUBANG, West Java (The Straits Times/ANN): In a first for the country, the authorities in Indonesia's most populous province of West Java have introduced a new incentive to slow population growth by offering 500,000 rupiah (S$40 - RM132) in cash to men who undergo vasectomies.
The men must be aged 35 and above, are healthy, have fathered at least two children, and have the consent of their wives for the procedure. In West Java, a person is defined as living below the poverty line if he lives on 535,000 rupiah, or lower, a month.
'Response has been way above expectations,' said Enda Suganda, a senior official at West Java's population control and family planning department in Subang regency.
'We had more than 200 men coming forward but we could only do 60. We will budget again for further vasectomies later this year,' he told The Straits Times at his office on June 12.
The sterilisation programme, which is the brainchild of West Java Governor Dedi Mulyadi, will be rolled out in other regencies including Purwakarta, Cirebon and Indramayu in the coming months.
A small but undisclosed amount for the programme will come from the province's social assistance fund for 2025, which is earmarked at 14 trillion rupiah, according to Enda.
'There are always pros and cons, but I believe vasectomy gives a lot of benefits,' goods trader Asep Dadi, 50, who has three children, told ST.
'It does not do harm to us men,' added Mr Asep, one of the 60 who underwent the minor surgical procedure in Subang regency, saying he planned to use the money for household expenses.
Indonesia's population of nearly 286 million makes it the world's fourth most populous country. West Java alone has a population of 49.9 million – about the same as South Korea's.
Since Jakarta launched its family planning programme in the 1970s, Indonesia's total fertility rate, or births per woman, has fallen from 5.6 to around 2 today. To date, efforts to slow population growth had focused mainly on birth control for women, with commonly used methods such as oral contraceptive pills taken daily or regular injections every quarter.
Some feel more could be done.
In April, governor Dedi made headlines for his proposal requiring men to undergo sterilisation in exchange for access to the government's social assistance programme, known locally as bansos. Recently, he also proposed military-style boot camps to instill discipline among delinquent youth.
Vasectomy is a sterilisation procedure for males, in which the tubes that carry sperm are cut or blocked. It is considered a simple and permanent form of birth control. Although it can be reversed in some cases, success is not guaranteed.
'Stop having children if you can't provide for them well,' he told reporters, suggesting funds used to subsidise hospital births for underprivileged women be redirected towards building simple housing.
Dedi's proposal went further, outlining that vasectomy would also be a requirement for poor families seeking new electricity connections, food aid, scholarships or public housing.
'We now expect the husband to join the programme, as a form of responsibility for himself and his family. Don't always place the responsibility on women,' he said.
Dedi argued that vasectomies would help reduce the poverty rate as 'poor families generally have many children'. Some 7 per cent of West Java's population live below the province's poverty line.
The regional governor's controversial vasectomy-for-aid proposal has raised eyebrows, drawing backlash from rights and religious groups.
His idea did not go down well with the West Java Ulema Council of Islamic leaders, whose chairman Mr Rahmat Syafei said vasectomy could only be used as an incentive, not a prerequisite for social aid.
'If it is for an incentive, that is acceptable, but still it must comply with religious teachings,' he told local news agency Antara on May 1.
Chairperson of the National Commission on Human Rights for Indonesia, Atnike Nova Sigiro, who spoke to reporters in May, said: 'Whatever is medically being done to your body is (a matter of) privacy and... human rights. It should not be linked to social aid.'
That same month, Social Affairs Minister Saifullah Yusuf said that Dedi's idea was 'not relevant' to solving the poverty issue and would 'be difficult (to implement).'
Pangeran Khairul Saleh, a member of a Parliamentary group that oversees human rights issues, stressed that sterilisation cannot be made mandatory or conditional.
'Social assistance fund is a citizen's constitutional right and cannot be linked to any medical procedure, which is a private matter,' he said in a statement to local media on June 5.
In the digital public sphere, reaction was divided. One social media user who backed the proposal, in principle, expressed hopes that men 'will make more effort to improve their standard of living, and that the family planning programme doesn't only burden women'.
Others gave the idea a flat thumbs down, likening birth control as a population control tool, particularly for the poor, to eugenics.
'Reproductive rights or reproductive abuse?' posted an Instagram user.
But for freelance electrician Nana Suryana, who was among the first batch of 60 to be vasectomised, the cash payout will come in handy.
'Any further social aid linked to my vasectomy will be very welcome,' the 46-year-old father of six told ST. - The Straits Times/ANN