Population Growth Control – Sinaumed’s , it’s no secret that population growth in Indonesia is very high. Population growth is the addition or reduction of the population due to births, deaths and migration.
Even so, it turns out that Indonesia’s population growth in the last few decades is considered to be slower when compared to the period before 1980.
Ways to Overcome Population Growth
Here are some ways that can be done to overcome high population growth.
1. Promoting the Transmigration Program
One program that is useful for overcoming population density without suppressing population growth is to promote the transmigration program. Transmigration is a program to move people from areas that are densely populated to areas that are still sparsely populated. This transmigration will encourage the creation of an even distribution of population.
If the population is evenly distributed, then this will contribute to the occurrence of equitable development. The transmigration program will reduce population density in densely populated areas by transferring them to various parts of Indonesia that have less dense populations.
As we already know, the area in Indonesia that has the densest population is on the island of Java. Even Java Island is also known as one of the most densely populated islands in the world. So far, the Indonesian government has carried out a massive transmigration program. The target of the government’s transmigration program are people from the island of Java and are usually placed in eastern Indonesia, for example on the island of Kalimantan.
Transmigration participants will generally be facilitated with housing and given land for planting. In this way, there are several positive impacts that can be felt, not just for equal distribution of the population, but also for the number of unemployed people on the island of Java to be reduced and this will make land in the eastern region that was previously empty become productive land.
2. Equal Employment
It is undeniable that most of the reasons why people like to change their place of residence are because of work. It’s true, today’s number of jobs is still very unequal where many jobs are only available in busy areas such as big cities.
In addition, jobs are also usually found in areas that already have a large population, because this allows for the availability of many potential customers and the workforce is not scarce so that producers can reduce employee salaries.
To realize this, the Indonesian government has actually done it. One of the proofs is that it can be seen that many job vacancies in government agencies today are placed in areas outside Java. This will reduce population density, because many people will move outside Java to work.
3. Suppressing Population Growth with the Family Planning Program
One way that has proven effective as a solution to overcoming population density is to promote family planning or family planning programs. Family planning is a program created by the government for the people of Indonesia by limiting the number of children, where it is recommended that only 2 children be sufficient in one family.
In the family planning program, mothers are given various special methods so they don’t get pregnant. These methods include taking certain drugs, using contraceptives, using injections and needles, and so on. The Family Planning Program has proven successful in reducing the rate of population growth so that the current population in Indonesia is not too high.
The socialization of the Family Planning program has been carried out optimally and can be accessed at the puskesmas level. The Family Planning Program has been carried out by many Indonesian citizens, but there are still some Indonesian citizens who do not want to implement family planning because they think that family planning is not in accordance with the beliefs and principles they adhere to.
4. Make a law that determines the minimum age for marriage
In recent years there have been cases that have been rife in Indonesia, namely regarding deviations from norms by adolescents. Many children of school age become pregnant out of wedlock and are then expelled from school. This is not only happening in Indonesia, but almost every country has experienced a similar case.
Not only will it have a negative impact on the future of students, but in the long run this will also have a negative impact on the population density in Indonesia. Try it, imagine if a child with junior high school age will give birth to a baby, then this means that children at a young age are already producing other young children.
If many children at school age have babies, population growth in Indonesia will surely explode. Not just getting pregnant out of wedlock, sometimes you can still find parents in several areas in Indonesia deliberately marrying off their children at a young age, especially girls.
Therefore, to overcome this, the government issued a law that discusses this matter. This law provides regulations regarding the determination of the minimum age for marriage for a person. This aims to reduce population growth rates and overcome population density.
5. Limiting child benefits for civil servants and ABRI up to the second child
One of the reasons why people don’t mind the number of children is because they receive child support from both the government and the private sector. The allowance is obtained together with the salary earned every month. Therefore, the method taken by the government to suppress population growth is to limit child benefits to a maximum of only the second child.
This goes hand in hand with the Family Planning program which recommends that each family only have two children. By limiting child support, that person will definitely reconsider having many children, given the increasingly expensive cost of living, especially the cost of education.
However, this program is difficult to implement in rural areas, because in the villages there are not many available employees and villagers have the idea that “more children, more luck”. However, in urban areas, it can help to deal with overcrowding.
6. Imposing High Tariffs for Immigrants
Many factors can support Indonesia to experience population density, not only in terms of the number of indigenous Indonesians, but also from the large number of foreign residents.
Foreign tourists who do not only travel one day (return in one day) from their country to Indonesia and return to their country. There are also many tourists who feel fit and settle in Indonesia, even if only for a while. Well, this kind of thing can increase population density in Indonesia.
The activities of foreigners entering Indonesia are known as immigration. Actors from immigration are called immigrants. In general, when immigrants enter Indonesia, they will take care of various kinds of administrative documents along with the costs. Well, one of the efforts to reduce population density in terms of immigrants is to increase the administrative fee rate. It is hoped that this will have an impact that will make immigrants think more before settling in Indonesia.
7. Disseminate Population Education to Various Levels of Education
The problem of population density can be regarded as a problem that is quite serious. Not just “PR” for the government, but also for the people. Awareness about the negative impact of overcrowding must also be realized by the community because the community is also the main cause of overcrowding.
So that if the people themselves are aware of the dangers and impacts of overcrowding, the community will also be aware of having the right number of children.
8. Facilitate and improve services in the field of education
Education also has a very large role in relation to controlling population growth. This is especially for teenagers who want to get married at a young age. In ancient times, we found many teenagers who had just graduated from junior high school, then did not continue their high school education, and decided to get married.
Therefore, the government is trying to overcome this by improving services in the education sector so that many students are interested in continuing their education to a higher level.
With the desire to continue their education to a higher level, the desire to marry at a very young age can be delayed. This needs to be encouraged because it will have a positive impact on many parties.
Factors Causing Population Growth
Then, what are the factors driving this density of population growth? Population growth shows the number of additions in a region or country with a certain period of time.
Population growth is the change in population in the form of increase and decrease that occurs in the field. There are several factors that influence the occurrence of population density, including:
1. Mortality
Death can be caused by various factors, for example the influence of age and/or the condition of the environment around where he lives, which lacks the means to meet his needs. For example, the unavailability of food, the low level of cleanliness of the living environment, and also the health factor of the population.
In addition, there are many factors that occur beyond human control that can cause high mortality rates, for example natural disasters. If this factor occurs, it will cause the population number to decrease and vice versa if the death rate decreases.
2. Birth (Fertility)
Birth can be considered as the main factor of population growth in the world. If the birth rate is high compared to the death rate, the soul growth rate will also increase. Birth factors can also encourage the creation of acceleration in health technology.
Even so, this will also have an impact on an increase in population which can increase drastically due to an increase in the birth rate. In contrast to death which has the function of reducing the population, births will contribute to increasing the population growth rate.
Factors that encourage birth can be categorized into two, namely birth supporting factors ( pronatal ) and birth inhibiting factors ( antinatal ). The pro-natality factor can occur with the encouragement of young marriages and the assumption and principle that many children have a lot of fortune.
Meanwhile, anti-natality can occur if a family planning (KB) program is implemented by limiting the number of children in a family.
3. Migration (Migration)
Migration is the movement of a group from one area to another. Migration is carried out to seek new sources of livelihood to avoid scarcity due to increasing population density.
Negative Impact of Population Density
1. Lots of Unemployment
One of the negative effects of population density is unemployment. This is because the population is always increasing while the number of job vacancies is not increasing and or the increase is not proportional.
2. Increased Crime
The visible impact of the presence of other population density is the crime rate increases. This impact is also included in the indirect impact. Many people who do not get a job will force people to do things that are criminal in nature, such as stealing, pickpocketing, robbery, and so on.
3. A lot of garbage is thrown away carelessly
Population density also contributes to a dirty environment because of the waste that is disposed of carelessly. Overly dense population settlements will automatically generate a lot of waste that cannot be accommodated from household waste.
Also read:
- Factors Causing High Population Growth
- Definition of Economic Growth: Characteristics, Factors
- Population Growth: Formulas, Types, Factors
- Why is Indonesia’s population not evenly distributed?
- Purpose and Benefits of the Population Census