Campaigning for Condom Use in Indonesia

AFTER earning a doctorate in anthropology from the Australian National University (ANU), Masri Singarimbun decided to settle in Australia. He worked as an assistant military attaché at the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra as well as a research fellow at ANU.

In 1973, while attending a scientific meeting in Australia, Gadjah Mada University (UGM) Rector Sukadji Ranuwihardjo met him and persuaded him to return home to develop his alma mater. Masri accepted the offer, as he also wanted to raise his children in Indonesia. That year, he returned to Yogyakarta.

In addition to teaching, Masri established and became the director of the UGM Population Institute or LK-UGM (now the Center for Population and Policy Studies or PSKK-UGM) with funding from the Ford Foundation.

Through LK-UGM, Masri and his colleagues conducted several studies on population issues, especially on how to make the family planning program work effectively. One of the studies is the use of condoms.

"Mr. Masri was often referred to as the 'father of condoms' because he always carried condoms everywhere. He didn't see it as a bad thing but instead positive, as he could make people more familiar with condoms," said Muhadjir Darwin, one of the senior research staff at PSKK-UGM, as quoted by PSKK-UGM Media Center.

To find out the public's acceptance of condoms, Masri conducted a test on people around him. Once, he deliberately put a plate of condoms on his desk at the UGM Faculty of Economics along with the words "please take one". A few days passed but the number of condoms stayed the same. He tried taking a day off. When he entered the office the next day, he found that the number of condoms on the plate had decreased. He concluded people needed condoms but were too shy to take them. Thus, the Condom by Post Project was created.

Considering Contraception

When Masri started his activities, the government was aggressively implementing a family planning program after years of ignoring the threat of population explosion and the need for maternal and child health.

Family planning had actually started in the 1950s through the activities of the Family Welfare Foundation (YKK) and the Indonesian Family Planning Association (PKBI). Apart from facing public protests, the main challenge came from the government. Despite being sympathetic to family planning, President Sukarno did not consider the issue of population growth important. He also looked at the morality aspect and potential opposition from religious communities. Just like Sukarno, Soeharto was also cautious.

Soeharto finally accepted the advice of technocrats and donor agencies to sign the United Nations-sponsored Declaration of World Leaders on Population on December 10, 1967. Since then, the family planning program has been an integral part of national development.

To gather views from religious communities, the Adhoc Family Planning Committee, which was part of the Ministry of Health, held a panel discussion in February 1967. The results of the discussion were published as a book titled Pandangan Agama tentang ‘Keluarga Berentjana’ (Religious Views on 'Family Planning'), which documented the general acceptance of family planning principles by religious communities.

"The discussion and pamphlet captured an important moment in social change, an inflection point when the national consensus around the morality of family planning went from overwhelmingly negative to overwhelmingly positive," Terence H. Hull wrote in "Formative Years of Family Planning in Indonesia", published in The Global Family Planning Revolution edited by Warren C. Robinson and John A. Ross.

In November 1968, the government established the National Institute for Family Planning (LKBN), which later became the National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN). When BKKBN was first established, there were three contraceptive methods used by family planning acceptors. Most users used the intrauterine device (IUD), followed by pills and finally condoms. At that time, one doctor had to serve 21,000 people or 3,750 fertile women. From here, an idea emerged from the professional group about the need for the spread of non-medical contraception outside the clinic. This aspiration was received well. Since 1973, BKKBN has collaborated with institutions such as LK-UGM and Yayasan Indonesia Sejahtera (YIS) to realize the idea.

Condoms by Post

A mini advertisement caught many people's attention. It read: "Three condoms will be sent to you if you send a Rp30 stamp to Dwijaya, Post Office Box 85 Yogyakarta; for a family planning book send a Rp50 stamp."

The advertisement appeared in Kompas and Kedaulatan Rakyat every week during September-October 1973. The advertiser was Dwijaya, an organization formed by LK-UGM. Suddenly, 346 orders were made from several regions in Indonesia, proving that Masri's trial received a positive response from the public.

"It was clearly controversial. Many people opposed it, especially from the ulama. However, he still did it because the goal was positive," Muhadjir said.

Having stopped for a year and a half, LK-UGM again published an advertisement for condom sales, with funding from USAID and BKKBN. This time the size of the ad was enlarged to one column (4.3 x 10 centimeters). They no longer mentioned "condoms" in the advertisement but "rubber birth control" to change the taboo image that had long been attached to condoms.

The advertisements were alternately placed in several national and local media during April-September 1975. It was stated that customers only needed to send Rp45 worth of stamps to get 9 rubber condoms and Rp30 for 6 rubber condoms. In the September ad, this was changed to Rp75 for 15 condoms and Rp45 for 9 condoms. In addition, the text "safe and effective for family planning" and "husband's way is the easiest way" were added.

All orders that arrived at the post office in Yogyakarta were picked up daily by staff from Dwijaya and brought to the office, a 2x4-meter room at LK-UGM.

"With a frequency of 312 advertisements in 22 newspapers and magazines, the project has received 12,204 order letters in half a year," Kondom Melalui Pos: Laporan Setengah Tahun (Condoms by Post: A Half-Year Report) published by LK-UGM mentioned.

The project was a pilot to find new forms of face-to-face family planning services, because condom buyers were usually reluctant or embarrassed to go to a clinic or drugstore.

In 1975, BKKBN created Pos KB (Family Planning Post), a contraceptive distribution center from where people could get condoms for free. However, people were more comfortable ordering by mail. "The advantage of this project is that the interested person does not have to be as embarrassed as if he was dealing with a clinic clerk or drugstore clerk," wrote Masri Singarimbun in Laporan Kondom Melalui Pos: Tanggapan-tanggapan Penerima (Condoms by Post: Recipient Responses).

Fortunately, LK-UGM wasn't the only one making this effort.

Condoms and Herbal Medicine

Around 1974, Yayasan Indonesia Sejahtera (YIS) collaborated with BKKBN in assisting non-medical contraceptive services, especially condoms. The idea then developed into distributing condoms through the sale of herbal medicine or jamu. The appointed company was Jamu Jago in Semarang.

"The condoms were received by YIS from BKKBN for free, while the jamu company paid YIS Rp12 for every 3 condoms," wrote the Research Institute in Social Sciences of Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, in its research report, Pemasaran Kondom Melalui Pembauran pada Jalur Komersial Jamu di Jawa Tengah (Condom Marketing Through Blending in the Jamu Commercial Line in Central Java).

Just like Dwijaya, promotion was done through advertisements in print media. During October 1975 to March 1976, YIS did promotion 350 times. They also advertised on the radio and distributed posters.

"At that time, Jamu Jago had an advertising car that traveled to markets. To attract buyers, there were midgets in the advertising car," Jaya Suprana, the third generation of the Tjoeng Kwaw Suprana family, the founder of the Jamu Jago factory, told Historia.

The price set by Jamu Jago was originally Rp20 for a pack (containing 3 condoms), the same as the price of a pack of herbal medicine, but then increased to Rp40 per pack. This price was relatively cheap, compared to the price of condoms on the market, such as the Kingtex brand at Rp250 per 3 pieces, Yelia Skin at Rp75 per 2 pieces, or Wrinkle Zero O at Rp650 per dozen.

According to a study by the Research Institute in Social Sciences of Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, it is unclear when the collaboration between YIS and Jamu Jago ended. This is because even in 1978, Jamu Jago retailers were still found selling birth control rubbers, although not as intensively as in the previous years.

"In the 1970s to the early 1980s, the use of condoms for family planning activities hadn’t received negative reactions or challenges from the community. This is different from other contraceptives such as IUDs and even sterilization," Inang Winarso, executive director of PKBI, told Historia.

The Contraction of Condom

The government continued to campaign for condoms as a contraceptive. On one occasion, in the early 1980s, President Soeharto warned that the problem of the population explosion could not be underestimated. This statement was responded to by Sudomo, then the minister of labor. "If you want to seek entertainment, you can. But you must use condoms or spirals," he said, as quoted from Presiden II RI dalam Berita: 1983–1984 (the Second President of Indonesia in the News: 1983-1984).

Islamic groups often question the family planning program on religious and moral grounds, and the military didn't hesitate to act. The Tanjung Priok incident in 1984, for example, was triggered by a sermon by a religious leader who criticized the implementation of the family planning program. A few years later, police in East Java banned several Islamic books that condemned the practice of birth control in certain ways. The government also began to suppress the political interests of Islamic groups.

In an annual report published by the National Development Planning Agency or Bappenas in 1987, the government said it was working towards "condom self-sufficiency". This effort was in line with the construction of a condom factory in the Banjaran area, Bandung Regency, West Java. "With the production of this factory, we have been able to meet some of our own needs for contraceptives," said President Soeharto during the inauguration on February 25, 1987.

The impact was favorable: condom use increased. However, condoms as contraceptives never really caught on. In 1976, condom use reached 1.5 percent, but since the 1990s it has dropped below 1 percent. In 2003, BKKBN launched a condom vending machine, but it immediately received a negative reaction from the public.

The failure of the condom campaign as a contraceptive was due to several reasons, but among other things, it is considered less practical and reduces pleasure. However, many parties also highlighted the lack of awareness of active family planning for men.