Menduk, Bangka Belitung – Three children from a small Indonesian village have been left paralyzed because their parents could not afford basic medical care for relatively minor sickness

Jakarta – Religious leaders are widely regarded as playing a significant role in promoting the government's family planning program, religious activists say.

Deborah Cassrels – On a flawless day in Bali, tourists are revelling in sun and surf and padding about plush hotels.

Dina Indrasafitri, Jakarta – When a song called Vasectomy was aired by an independent Indonesian Internet radio station earlier this year, many listeners thought it a joke due to the so

Dessy Sagita, Jakarta – Anen, a man in his mid-50s, recalls the years 2000 and 2001 as the darkest days of his life.

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The ruling Democratic Party has called for premarital sex counseling for young couples in a bid to stem infidelity and eventually achieve the UN-mandated Mill

Hamong Santono – Last month, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring access to clean water and sanitation a fundamental human right.

Dessy Sagita, Jakarta – The government on Thursday announced a plan to provide free birth care to all, helping to prevent cases of mothers selling their babies to pay for the deliveries

Jakarta – A legislator has called on the government to be more serious in curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS in the Indonesian province of Papua.

Dessy Sagita – The government's focus on treating illnesses rather that preventing them by promoting healthy lifestyles is costing the country valuable time and money, according to an e

Ika Krismantari, Jakarta – Isn't it inevitable that a life of excess brings with it big problems?

Dessy Sagita – Women's renewed focus on their careers and a dearth of information have been blamed for fewer mothers breast-feeding their newborns, an official said on Friday.

Jakarta – According to the National Commission for AIDS (Komnas-AIDS), "good" housewives make up 59.9 percent of women living with HIV in Indonesia.

Ulma Haryanto & Made Arya Kencana – The recent cases of low-income women selling their babies in order to pay for their medical bills highlights the need for a comprehensive nationa

Nurfika Osman – Two mothers who were left no option but to sell their newborns to pay hospital bills could have avoided their plight had they been informed they qualified for insurance

Dessy Sagita – A complete lack of faith in the health care system and threadbare promotions of the country's hospitals that offer international-standard treatment are pushing thousands

Jakarta – Civil society groups and 10 regional administrations agreed to implement joint initiatives in at-risk provinces to reduce high maternal and child mortality rates.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Nusa Dua (Bali) – An insurance expert and legislators warned the government on Friday against politicizing and manipulating the huge healthcare fund for the needy, s

Jakarta – Drug offenders account for 30 percent, or about 40,000 of the 132,000 Indonesian prisoners, the director general for correctional institutions, Untung Sugiyono, said Wednesday

Nurfika Osman – Activists and nutritionists have urged the government to adopt an international code that bans the unethical promotion of breast-milk substitutes in a bid to increase br

Titania Veda – "My parents told me to stay here until the baby was born," says Diana, not her real name. "I wanted an abortion, but when I found out it was already too late.

Putri Prameshwari – Life for Uni is a little different than most kids her age; at 16 years old she already frequently visits a gynecologist.

Jakarta – Indonesia's failure to ban tobacco advertising or enforce laws against smoking in bars and restaurants came under heavy fire Monday as the United Nations marked world anti-tob

Jakarta – The number of Indonesian people contracting the HIV has been on the rise over the past couple of years, according to one NGO.

Jakarta – Gender-biased policies and poor implementation of health laws hinder the fulfillment of women's rights to adequate medical services, a study has found.

Jakarta – Neonatal maternal mortality rate in Indonesia is considered high despite a significant decline since 2007, with two women dead every hour during delivery.

Nivell Rayda – Papuan political prisoner Filep Karma suffered for eight months with a bladder infection but in that time the only help he received was to be told by prison officers to l

Jakarta – To achieve improved maternal health, in pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) involves overcoming several hurdles, with the maternal mortality rate still at 2.28

Dessy Sagita – In a claim likely to cause consternation from Muslim smokers, a Dutch author has published a book that claims that pig blood is used to make cigarette filters.

Peter Gelling, Jakarta – Despite the government's best efforts to curb the consumption of alcohol, the party here is as rollicking as ever.

Jakarta – A video posted on the Internet of a little boy smoking, swearing and making lewd sexual gestures has shocked Indonesia, reports said Thursday.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Lidya is 12 years old but unlike most girls her age, she only weighs 9 kilograms, suffers from leprosy and spends most of her time in bed.

The parents of a six-month-old baby who died after she was allegedly denied treatment by Tangerang's Sari Asih Hospital are planning to take legal action.

Farouk Arnaz & Dessy Sagita – An anti-tobacco group on Thursday reported a current lawmaker and two former legislators to the National Police, accusing them of eliminating a clause

Jakarta – Family planning programs are an unfamiliar service among city residents, especially among the poor, with an observer warning of the looming phenomenon of a lost generation.

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – Officials' maneuvers to maintain a good political image ahead of a direct election are believed to have contributed to widespread malnutrition in Banda

Wasti Atmodjo, Denpasar – Around 70 million Indonesian people have no access to sanitation facilities, an official confirmed.

Jakarta – The National Family Planning Coordinating Agency (BKKBN) insists the involvement of the Indonesian Military (TNI) in its national campaigns is not to coerce people into partic

Hunger Alert Update: AHRC-HAU-001-2010

Dear Friends,

Ahmad Pathoni – Siti Maemunah says her son has been delusional for more than seven years, often talking to himself and sometimes becoming angry for no apparent reason.

An East Java hospital has been accused of denying a family the right to take home and bury the body of their deceased newborn baby because the infant's parents could not meet their medi

Nivell Rayda – Strict implementation of the 2004 National Social Security System Law is needed to prevent millions of Indonesians from slipping through the cracks in the health insuranc

Ulma Haryanto – Indonesian Corruption Watch has found that some hospitals still discriminate against poor families who are entitled to free medical treatment, the watchdog group's publi

Nurfika Osman – At least 7.6 million Indonesian children under the age of 5 – or one out of every three – suffer from stunted growth, a primary manifestation of malnutrition in early ch

Surabaya – The East Java provincial government has decided to provide free healthcare to clerics who run Islamic boarding schools across the province, Deputy Governor Saifullah Yusuf sa

Oyos Saroso H.N, Bandarlampung – Health insurance for the poor (Jamkesmasda) provided by the regional administration is being denied to 30 percent of poor families in Lampung because so

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – Cases where hospitals reject patients living in poverty because they cannot pay the advance was a common occurrence in Indonesia several years ago.

Matt Crookm, Dili – The tiny nation of East Timor could face a deadly AIDS epidemic, with promiscuity among youths, low condom use and general ignorance leading to a sharp increase in r

Dessy Sagita – The avian and swine flu strains may have caused the most panic, but combating tuberculosis, dengue fever and malnutrition should top the Ministry of Health's priorities f

Jakarta – Indonesia needs more dedicated midwives to help reach maternal and infant mortality targets set by the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, a meeting h