ABSTRACT
The early initiative for organising a family planning program in Indonesia came from community leaders and influential women's groups. In 1957, the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association came into being as a voluntary organisation mainly confined to the provision of family planning services in urban areas. It expanded its activities despite the lack of government support, but had to cease its operations during the political and economic convulsions that gripped the country in the mid sixties. With the transfer of power from Sukarno to General Suharto in 1966, a major shift took place in the attitude of the government towards population control. The two decades of government disapproval of family planning thus came to an end, paving the way for adoption of family planning as an official government policy in 1970.
