Indonesia village programs stress pill continuation while medical clinics start women on method use.

Abstract

The emphasis of Indonesia's experiment with village distribution of contraceptives, begun in 1974, is on maintenance rather than initiation of oral contraceptive use. As part of the experiment, it was decided to make resupplies available without charge outside the clinics on Java and Bali experimentally. The effort operated on the principles of avoiding standardization and focusing on resupply. In the province of West Java, resupply depots were established in the homes of acceptors whoowere also known village leaders. Each month the depot holders received a resupply, had their record-keeping reviewed, and were advised on how to deal with complaints. Presently, there are about 1600 village distribution centers with each of these units serving several subunits of a village. Effective village distribution efforts have also been established in Central Java and East Java. A unique feature of the East Java program is a lottery created to sustain the interest of those already in the program as well as to attract new acceptors. The Bali program is different from those of East Java in that most acceptors are IUD users. In this program emphasis is on recruiting new acceptors and maintaining those already in the program, and motivational effort is directed to the male. Village distribution effort data in Indonesia suggest that as the number of village distribution outlets increases, the proportion of married women of reproductive age who use contraception also increases. In addition to the government supported family planning program, there is now a combined effort supported by the Indonesian government and Aid to International Development to achieve acceptance of the condom and increased involvement of men in family planning.