UNAIR NEWS – Lately, demographic bonus has been in the spotlight. From 2020 to 2030 later, Indonesia achieves demographic bonus as the citizens in productive age group 15 – 60 years will dominate the population pyramid. The roles of youths need to be reinforced to prevent it becomes a disaster.
The National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) in collaboration with Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) held a campus dialogue entitled “Youth Reinforcement in Sustainable Village Development”, held in Garuda Mukti Hall, on Monday, May 23. There were hundreds of students from many universities in the event.
There were five speakers in the event, the Head of BKKBN dr. Surya Candra Surapaty, a representative of United Nations for Population Fund (UNFPA) Anggraini Sari Astuti, Head of Youth Population Coalition Kartini Laras Makmur, Head of Demographic Institute Faculty of Economy Universitas Indonesia Dr. Sonny Harry B Harmadi, also a professor on Human Resources Management Prof. Dr. Jusuf Irianto, M.Comm.
In the dialogue moderated by Drs. Suko Widodo, Msi, dr. Surya Candra said that demographic bonus only happens once in the history of one nation. To optimize this demographic bonus, the quality of the population, especially the productive age should be improved, especially in the coming of ASEAN Economic Community (MEA). In his opinion, young generation mindset must be changed. Three things need to be improved are integrity, work ethics and collaborative works.
Head of BKKBN also reminded the importance of interpersonal communication in families. According to Surya, murder case among family members covered in the media lately often happened because of lack of communication. “Son killed a father, or the other way around, in my opinion is a disaster. They must improve communication again,” said Surya.
Meanwhile according to Dr. Sonny, education has also important roles in improving youth quality. Unfortunately this condition is not supported by education institutional infrastructure development, such as more universities establishment.
“When we just liberated in 1945, Indonesian population was about 50 million. Now, according to the latest data, it reached 256 million. But our universities do not increase in quantity. We only have two engineering institutes. High population of infants (below 5 years old) increased the number of nursery schools (PAUD) but not the universities,” said the Head of Demographic Institute FE-UI.
Youth Roles
Youths have excessive energy, so positive medium is needed to achieve sustainable development. Kartini explained, youth with access of information should look up Sustainable Development Goals as she viewed that they lacked contribution to achieve Millenium Development Goals.
Healthcare and education are two aspects to be reinforced in village development. Kartini said that the young generation can join a community or an organization which concentrates in those two aspects.
”There is a movement called Gerakan Indonesia Mengajar which focused on education. There is also an organization which moves on healthcare like Pencerah Nusantara. Those are good organizations which can make us useful for the communities,” said Kartini.
Anggraini as the representative of UNFPA said that the young generation should have commitments in achieving sustainable development. “The youth should innovate and be creative. They should also do showcase to stakeholders,” said Anggraini. (*)
Author: Defrina Sukma S.
Editor: Bambang Bes
