The term birth recession (sex recession) has been the talk of the town for the past week. A number of countries are even said to be facing this phenomenon. Birth rates are declining in Asia, Japan, and South Korea as more people choose not to have sex, get married, or have children.
In 2021, only 193,000 couples in South Korea decided to have children. Japan’s birth rate was 811,604, the lowest since records began in 1899. What about Indonesia?
Cause of Birth and Sex Recession in Indonesia
Hasto Wardoyo, director of the National Board of Population and Family Planning (BKKBN), said Indonesia could also experience sexual depression.
This condition, said Hasto, was caused by a number of cities or regencies in Indonesia that did not experience birthstones or zero growth.
Lifestyle is considered to be one of the triggers of the birth and sex recession. Not only that, many women or men postpone marriage because of pursuing studies or careers.
One area in Indonesia that has the potential to experience sexual resection is Yogyakarta. In this province, the overall birth rate is only 2.2 and 1.9 in some districts or cities. Simply put, most women only give birth to one child at a time.
Even though Indonesia has the potential to experience a sex recession, this has yet to happen. The estimate is for the generation of young people who live in 2045 and decide not to marry or be child-free.
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Sex Recession and Birth Rate in Indonesia
The phenomenon of sex recession seems to be far from happening in Indonesia. This is because this country runs a family planning program (KB), in which the government encourages people to plan pregnancies.
Sex recession and family planning programs are two different things. Sex recession is a decrease in the frequency of having sex, while KB is a family planning program by delaying pregnancy through the use of contraceptives. In the family planning program, the frequency of having sex is not taken into account.
It should be noted, Indonesia itself is actually reducing the birth rate (TFR) through the family planning program. At least, Indonesia’s TFR figure has almost reached the ideal for stable population growth.
“However, there is a difference between TFR and sex recession, because Indonesia is trying to reduce TFR. So, the target TFR for a population in the country for stable growth is 2.1 or an average of two children,” said Gynecology Obstetrics Specialist Doctor, Dr. Benedict A, MPH, Sp.OG(K).
“Indonesia has almost reached the ideal TFR of 2.24 (2021). This cannot be connected with a sex recession. In Indonesia, the government wants to limit it, but by not making people rarely have sex,” he continued.
Negative Impact of Birth and Sex Recession
The obvious impact is the low birth rate and causes a reduction in the human population. This condition has the potential to increase the elderly population in the future and reduce the productive age. This condition also has an impact on the social and economic aspects of the country.
