JAKARTA, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Indonesia says it's launching an ambitious family-planning program in an effort to slow population growth in the capital of Jakarta, home to 9.6 million people.
Asep Syarifudin, head of the Jakarta Community Empowerment Agency, said the immediate goal was to keep population growth in the capital, the most populous city in Indonesia and in Southeast Asia, below 10 percent next year, the Jakarta Globe reported Thursday.
So far only 501,787 people had joined the family-planning program, Syarifudin said, a majority of them women who had agreed to take birth control pills.
About 37,000 men had received free vasectomies as part of the program, he said.
"We have done lots of things to bring in new participants. We have prepared all the facilities necessary to provide free family planning," he said.
The Jakarta government is spending $1.3 million this year for the program in cooperation with a number of state and private hospitals and health clinics.
