“Two Children is Enough” Written by : Fitrianingsih, S.Pd.

The current human population of the whole world has reached more than 7 billion.
Due to the number of birth which is higher than the number of death, the rate of population
growth increases every year. The world population is expected to reach 8.5 billion in 2030,
9.7 billion in 2050, and exceeded 11 billion in 2100. Yet, the concentration of population
growth in the poorest countries presents a challenge. Indonesia is ranked fouth in the category
of most populous countries in the world, having 313.020.847 inhabitants. As such, it will be
more difficult to eradicate poverty and inequality, to combat hunger and malnutrition, as well
as to expand job opportunities, and health systems, which are essential to the success of the
sustainable development agenda. Such concerns have been widely perceived, especially in
Indonesia. An unstable economy, the welfare of the poor families, high rate of
unemployment, and many children not attending school will always be complex phenomena.

Answering the issues above, the government considers a program called Planned
Family or what we call KB in Indonesia. The program is already familiar among all of the
citizen in Indonesia, BKKBN as the institution who takes apart in that program provides
some facilities for Planned Family. Beside conducting a national seminar promoting “Two
Children is Enough” every year in each major city, BKKBN also cooperates with some
medias such as televisions, radios, and pamphlets in order to attain the objectives of the
program in deacreasing the populations and to make sure that Indonesians don’t think to have
exceed 2 children so that the societies welfare in Indonesia can be guaranteed and the human
entirely life can be well-structured.

To be more profound, the program is probably running well for those who consider a
more modern way of thinking. However, the believers think that children are the gift from
God which makes for sustenance. Therefore, people should not doubt how God will handle
this life even though in a large human populations. Every single person has their own life, no
one can guarantee that having only two children means they put themselves into a prosperous
life, likewise people who have more than 2 children can’t be fully judged as an
underprivilaged family. Somehow it depends on how they fight for their life.

Two different ways of thinking will cause contradicting questions dealing with what
is better for future life. Should Indonesians consider how many children they will have to
answer some economical issues or will they just believe in God’s miracle?