Indonesia governor proposes vasectomy as requirement to get state welfare, gets heavily criticised

An Indonesian governor has ignited a wave of criticism from Islamic leaders, government officials and academics for his controversial proposal to make vasectomy a requirement for receiving state welfare and government scholarships.

West Java governor Dedi Mulyadi had recently proposed the idea to Indonesia's Social Affairs Ministry as a way to limit the number of children amongst low-income families and drive more equitable distribution of government financial aid, various media sources reported.

Vasectomy to access government aid?

Dedi explained that many poor families continued to have multiple children despite struggling to make ends meet, with such families consuming a disproportionate amount of government aid, according to New Straits Times.

Thus, Dedi proposed that vasectomy should be a requirement for all forms of government assistance — including government-funded scholarships, housing repair subsidies, and food aid.

"The plan is to check the eligibility of prospective aid beneficiaries. If they are participants in family planning, they may get assistance. If not, they should first adopt birth control measures, particularly male methods. I mean it," he said on Apr. 28, as cited by Antara News.

On Apr. 29, Dedi also announced that the West Java provincial government would offer weekly vasectomy services as a way to combat poverty.

Men who undergo the procedure would get a Rp 500,000 (S$38.98) cash incentive.

“I want to see more men participating in family planning,” Dedi told Jakarta Globe, adding that it shouldn't be always women bearing the responsibility.

Criticism

However, Dedi's proposal to link vasectomy to government assistance has since been denounced by religious leaders, government officials and academics alike, as a coercive policy that violates Islamic teachings, South China Morning Post reported.

Cholil Nafis, who heads the Indonesian Ulema Council, the country’s top Islamic scholars’ body, said that Islam forbids permanent sterilisation, but permits followers to space out their children's births.

"Poverty can be stopped by increasing employment opportunities, not stopping poor people from being born,” Cholil wrote in an X post.

Social Affairs Minister Saifullah Yusuf said government assistance is aimed at protecting vulnerable groups and that a vasectomy requirement would violate their bodily autonomy, Jakarta Post reported.

"Even the government’s family planning program, which has been in place for decades, is merely advisory and not compulsory," said Saifullah.

However, Saifullah did acknowledge that the proposal had merit, though the government still needed time to study the implementation in detail.

"There is a formal process for distributing government aid, and we cannot make changes on a whim," he said as cited by NST.

Wisnu Setiadi Nugroho, economist at Universitas Gadjah Mada, opined that making vasectomy a requirement for social aid is coercive and "inherently discriminatory".

Wisnu also warned that such an approach could erode trust in government social aid program, or lead to the rise of illegal practices such as falsifying vasectomy certificates or the operation of unlicensed clinics.

This is not the first time Dedi has come under public scrutiny for controversial policy proposals.

His previous proposal to send “unruly students” to military barracks for disciplinary training also sparked a human rights backlash, Jakarta Globe reported.

Top image from @DediMulyadi71/X