The Role Of Stakeholders In Fighting Smoking Habits In Adolescents In Indonesia
Indonesia’s Demographic and Economic Profile
Discuss about the Project Planning And Design For International Health.
One of the highest selling products in the world is Cigarette. Even when the product is injurious to health people are taking it on regular basis. Indonesia is a densely polluted country which is facing the health challenges due to excessive smoking habits in the people of adolescent’s age (Indonesia, 2012). Government of Indonesia is trying hard to reduce the uptake of Cigarette smoking in the adolescents. There are any donor countries that are also helping Indonesia in coming out of this crisis. This report elaborates the role of the stakeholder and the policies that are made by the government in fighting this challenge. It also describes the priorities and policies made in the nation so as to improve the situation.
Indonesia is a South-east Asian country. It is the largest island country with more than thirteen thousand islands. It is having more than 261 million people and hence the 4th most populous nation as well as most populous island. Its population growth is at 1.9% and 58% of them lives in Java. In the Java Island the population is unevenly populated. This country has youngsters as major part of the population as the median age of the country is 28.6 years. It is a member of G20 and has highest economy in Southeast Asia. It is having a GDP of US$1.074 trillion which makes it 16th largest economy in the world. Its largest sector is service sector with 43.3% GDP, manufacturing contributes 42.9% and agriculture contributes 13.7%. Most of the people are also employed in service sector (Tangcharoensathien, Patcharanarumol, Ir, Aljunid, Mukti, Akkhavong … & Mills, 2011).
Government’s expenditure on healthcare is about 2.9% of GDP. Every citizen is protected under the National health Insurance. All the citizens are provided health services through public and private organisations. It is assumed that the spending on the healthcare is going to increase by 12% a year and by 2019 it is expected to reach US$46 Billion. In the recent decades, the health indicators have improved significant since life expectancy has gone up to 71 in 2012 to 63 in 1990 (WHO, 2018). The child mortality rate has declined from 85 deaths per 1000 births in 1990 to 27 deaths in 2015. The major health challenges include low quality air, high rate of smoking, malnutrition and communicable diseases. The smoking habits are increasing in the adolescence whether male or female. According to the WHO report the difference in rural and urban areas in terms of female population which does smoking is 2.1 % while the difference between the male populations is 4.1%. In terms of female population in rural areas it is 30.4% and in urban areas it is 28.3%. In terms of male it is 58% in rural areas while in urban areas they constitute 54.6% (Agus & Horiuchi, 2012). This is a big challenge for the developing countries like Indonesia as they will have to invest a lot in the medical insurances. This is a problem as the policies in the country suggest giving medical cover to all the people residing in the nation.
Healthcare Status in Indonesia
Indonesia is a country where the health is affected by large number of factors. The major factors in this regards are the air quality, poverty, communicable diseases and smoking. Like many other countries they have made many health priorities. Indonesia’s recorded deficit was IDR 4 trillion as claims paid reached a value of IDR 58 trillion (Indonesia Investment, 2018). On the other hand premium received stood at IDR 54 trillion. Indonesian national health program provides the citizen with medical treatment in both private and public healthcare centres. People have to give the monthly premium so as to obtain the health care services. There are many Indonesian people who works under private sector and do not participate in the program.
In this the highest priority is given to diminish the uptake of Cigarette smoking in Indonesian adolescents. There are various healthcare and rehabilitation centres established by the government in order to help the people who have smoking habits. The government is planning to increase the insurance cover to all the people but at the same time they will have to make everybody pay monthly premium (Utomo, Sucahya & Utami, 2011). If not done properly then the yearly deficit of the government is going to increase.
Australia and China are the two major donor countries of Indonesia. Both are highly developed nations and have the GDP above that of Indonesia. Australia and China has a very high health indexes. The health statistics by WHO also suggests that Australia is one of those countries that have better health stats as compared to most of the nations. The life expectancy in this country has third and seventh highest life expectancy for female and male in the whole world. They are facing the major health challenges like skin cancer and it is highest in the world. Australia is also facing the challenges related to cigarette smoking habits in Adolescence (Aspinall, 2014). This can be understood by the fact that most deaths and diseases that can be prevented in Australia are caused by cigarette smoking. A report in 2013 suggested that on an average 12.8% of Australians aged 14 years or older smoke daily. It is also the major cause for the nation’s cancer.
On the other hand China is the country which is the largest consumer and producer of the cigarette. With 35 million consumers and it produces 42% of the total cigarettes in the world. Since the government is receiving huge amount of taxes from these companies and also employs a large workforce hence it is not going to prohibit. The situations become worse as the 60% of the Doctors themselves smokes and there is no law to punish people that violate medical ethics (Tobacco Control, 2018).
Smoking Habits in Indonesia
There are various stakeholders attached with this cigarette smoking and the health concerns in Australia. They have different kinds of roles to play in this case. Some of the stakeholders are:
- Government: It is a major stakeholder in this case as they will have to make policies regarding this so as to reduce the uptake of the cigarette. The government and the private companies can work as a team for making a nicotine free business environment (Duaso, McDermott, Mujika, Purssell & While, 2014).
- People: It is also the major stakeholder that is involved in this process. They need to actively take part in the projects run by the Indonesian government so as to remove this problem from the society.
- Healthcare members: One another essential stakeholder in this regards is the healthcare workers. They are important as they are the major player who could help the people in giving up the smoking activities (Christopoulou, Han, Jaber & Lillard, 2011). The rehabilitation centres will help them in doing so.
- Social workers: There are many social activists present in Indonesia. They have the role of generating awareness in the community so that people slowly reduces the intake of the cigarette.
Government of Indonesia is planning many types of project work that could reduce the uptake of the Cigarette (Suryana, Ariani & Lokollo, 2017). Governments can launch the project work like strengthening the laws against the uptake of cigarettes in public places. The similar types of laws exist in India. In China, the Tobacco authority has implemented WHO framework Convention on Tobacco control. In this, project work must also include schools so that youngsters at the adolescent age could be kept always from the cigarettes. Awareness at the young age could help them in keeping children away from such practices. Free distribution of tablets that helps in leaving Nicotine intake can be helpful for the country. Such tablets are helpful for the people who have regular habits. This could prove to be highly beneficial for the people in the rural areas.
Complete prohibition of local production of Tabaco products could help in reducing the uptake of Cigarette. The examples are very common in the case of Australia where comprehensive tobacco control program that aim to reduce smoking behaviour in the community can be implemented. Consistent efforts along with inescapable messages from different sources act as a key to success (Bindah & Othman, 2011). Australia and China could help them financially so as to build the project that will help in reducing the uptake of cigarettes. It is crucial that each and every stakeholder plays their respective role in this project.
Conclusion
From the above based report it can be concluded that Indonesia is densely populated country in the world. This country is facing challenges related to health. The biggest challenge that this country faces is related to smoking. This can be understood by the fact that there are many adolescent in both the gender who has generated smoking habits. This is increasing the health related concerns. This is also the case with Indonesia’s donor country like China and Australia. The health indexes of these countries have fallen down due to excessive smoking. Even after the various efforts from the government the situation still remains on the same side. Government, public, healthcare members and social workers are some of the stakeholders who will have to play their role in reducing the Cigarette uptake. The lessons can be learnt from the Donor countries regarding the ways in which they can improve the health indexes.
References
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