Agustina Wayansari, Jakarta – "My boyfriend asked me to do squats to get the sperm out so that I wouldn't fall pregnant," said a university student in a recent survey on sex, sexuality and reproductive health in several urban cities in Central Java.
The study, conducted last year by Antono Suryoputro, a lecturer at the School of Public Health at the University of Diponegoro in Semarang, Central Java, was participated in by around 2,000 young adults (ages 18-24) in five big cities including Semarang, Yogyakarta and Purwokerto.
The participants comprised students, as well as relatively uneducated factory workers.
"I was shocked and worried by the survey results, which showed that young people – even those with a reasonable level of education – still have a poor understanding of sexuality and reproductive health, while at the same time there is an increasing incidence of premarital sex, unwanted pregnancies and abortions, as well as sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS infection in the country," said Antono after presenting his study at the 4th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health in Hyderabad, India, last month.
"There was no difference between the results from the two groups (students and factory workers)," Antono said.
In Asia Pacific countries, including Indonesia, a large discrepancy exists between the public sexual culture and the private sexual culture. Sex education has arguably had little effect on attitudes to sex, and government policy regarding sex and reproductive health education has been seen as weak and ineffectual.
Leny Jakaria, who works for the Women's and Children's division of the Indonesian Family Planning Board (PKBI), said many parents still considered it inappropriate to talk about sex with their children and hampered any efforts they might make to find out about sex on their own.
"It's silly that in today's world, parents still deny the need for information and education on sexual and reproductive health for their teenage children," said Leny, whose organization manages 28 youth centers in various cities across the country.
The PKBI – which is among the oldest nonprofit organizations in the country that focus on sexual and reproductive health advocacy – empowers its young volunteers through peer education to provide information and counseling on sexual and reproductive health and other related issues.
"Even in big, modern and open cities like Jakarta, many parents often deny their children have sex (as they still consider extramarital sex taboo)," Leny told The Jakarta Post after the conference.
She said it would be better for parents to face the reality (that young people are sexually active) and prepare their children with adequate information and knowledge on sexual related matters, so they can have sex safely.
Many parents are of the opinion that the availability of contraception and sex education promotes promiscuity. Leny said some of the youth counselors at the PKBI were often prevented from participating by their parents, who saw them as promoting sex without a moral framework.
Manjula Lusti-Narashiman, the technical officer on sexual and reproductive health at the World Health Organization headquarters, said sex education should start at home, with parents talking with their children in an open and honest way. She said parents needed to develop the skills and methods necessary to communicate freely with their children.
Apart from providing counseling for teenagers, Lenny said the PKBI had initiated a program that helped break down the communication barriers between parents and children.
"We want parents to be more aware of this issue, that lifestyles have changed and that they have to be more open with their children including in sexuality. They've got to find a way to overcome the communication gap," she said.
Leny said the government of Indonesia – which has 65 million young people aged 10-24, comprising 30 percent of the total population – had grossly underestimated the importance of reproductive health education in schools.
"The government has not put the topic in the curriculum so far. (But) we have started the initiative with some local administrations such as in West Kalimantan where the authorities have agreed to allocate funds for the purpose," she said.
Purnima Mane, the deputy director of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities' (UNFPA) global office, said at the conference: "Around 70 percent of the world's total number of youth are living in the Asia Pacific region and we've got to admit that until now governments have done more lip service than real action in terms of addressing the issue of reproductive health."
She said the sexual way of HIV transmission was fast becoming the dominant one. There are two major problems according to Purnima, first the increasing number of young people who are infected with HIV, and second that people tend not to focus on young people who are living with HIV/AIDS as they consider them strong and not vulnerable.
Meanwhile, Heri Susanto from PKBI's Jakarta branch called for more participation from the private sector in addressing the issue, in a more sustainable way.
"Many producers of reproductive health related products such as condoms, panty liners and sanitary napkins, only use our program as part of their marketing communication campaign, despite the abundant opportunity to create sustainable community development programs," Heri said.