Whether or not the demographic bonus becomes a blessing or a curse will depend on productive teenager human resources
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Head of the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) Hasto Wardoyo has underlined the need for all parties to focus on tapping into the narrow window for reaping the demographic bonus.

"If the human resources' quality is poor, then it will be very heavy. Demographic bonus is a gap that only occurred in a short period of time," he noted in a statement issued by the BKKBN here on Monday.

Currently, in Indonesia, the productive population outnumbers the non-productive population, he noted.

This is evident from the fact that every 100 working people can support the livelihood of at least 44 non-working people, he informed.

To this end, the potential of these human resources should be utilized as much as possible to raise family incomes, Wardoyo said.

However, this situation could change given the high rate of stunting, which the 2019 Children Nutrition Status Survey pegged at 27.67 percent, he added.

In particular, the prevalence of stunting in East Java is still very high at 26.9 percent due to the number of teenagers entering into early marriages, he highlighted.

Teenage girls do not have the required foundation for motherhood as they are quitting school at an age where they are not ready for marriage, he said.

The high rate of stunting could threaten the nation's human resources, he warned.

This is because stunting causes children to be born short, affects their intellectual capacity, and increases their vulnerability to cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, and osteoporosis, Wardoyo pointed out.

"If they (teenage girls) do not get married at an early age, they would have a good education and a good job," Wardoyo affirmed.

As a result, they would become mothers who are economically secure in their old age, which would allow the nation to achieve the demographic bonus, he said.

"Whether or not the demographic bonus becomes a blessing or a curse will depend on productive teenager human resources," he remarked.

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Translator: Hreeloita S, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Sri Haryati
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