Digitalising citizen registrations for one of the world’s most populous countries

As the Indonesian public becomes accustomed to convenient digital services from banks and other private entities, their expectations for similarly seamless government services are also rising. 

This drives the bureaucracy to be more agile by adopting digitalisation, including Indonesia’s Dukcapil, the government agency responsible for managing and maintaining the country's population and civil registration data. 

"People now are more comfortable accessing public services online rather than having face-to-face interactions. And it is our responsibility to provide reliable digital services for now and the future," says Dukcapil's Director of National Population Data Integration, Mensuseno, to GovInsider. 

Dukcapil is a directorate under the Indonesian Ministry of Home Affairs that oversees the policy and implementation of population administration. It provides a lot of public services in Indonesia, alongside the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education.

According to Mensuseno, the digitisation of Dukcapil services is driven by solving targeted problems like reducing the need for travellers to repeatedly show their ID cards to officials at airports or train stations.

If it can be stored in a smartphone, the traveller's journey becomes more convenient. 

In 2022, Dukcapil launched an integrated population service platform called Identitas Kependudukan Digital (IKD) - or Digital ID - that can be accessed on smartphones. IKD has the same function as a physical ID card and can be used as an identity verification tool. 

"Our research shows Gen-Z and anyone who is familiar with smartphones prefer to use IKD over physical ID cards," he adds.  

Mensuseno shares how digitisation can improve access to population services, cut service time, and drives efficiency.  

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Speed up the issuance of legal documents  

Dukcapil began its digitisation journey in 2019 with the ‘Dukcapil Go Digital’ initiative to digitise population services simultaneously in 514 districts/cities across Indonesia and 130 Dukcapil representative offices worldwide.

The initiative kicked off with the implementation of electronic signatures to issue the most- needed documents for citizens such as family cards, birth certificates, and death certificates.  

These documents are required by citizens to access essential public services in daily life, such as child’s immunisation, getting health treatment and education scholarships, cash out pension funds, and inheritance certificates.

"E-signatures enable documents to be issued faster because officials can do it anytime and anywhere," says Mensuseno. 

Previously, documents had to be issued at the Dukcapil office using security paper – which was not always available – and waiting for the signature of officials who were often not in the office. 

According to Mensuseno, e-signed documents have the same legality as conventionally signed documents. 

Currently, all population documents issued by Dukcapil officials use electronic signatures except for ID cards and Child Identity Cards (KIA). 

Developing digital services 

Requests for document issuance are now easier and do not require applicants to go back and forth to the Dukcapil office. With Dukcapil digital services, IKD and Dukcapil online, people only need to input their personal data, mobile phone number and fill in the required documents.

The applicant will receive a registration number to print the document at the Dukcapil office after the document has been verified. Self-printing platforms are also available at district/city government offices and city malls. 

"All applications for civil registration documents can be accessed online except for ID cards and KIA where applicants still have to go to the Dukcapil office for the biometric verification process," Mensuseno adds. 

During the pandemic, these population services continued to run even though people's mobility was restricted. Dukcapil officers have provided document delivery services to residents' homes. 

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Reducing costs 

The next step is to ‘retire’ security printing paper and replace it with plain white paper to reduce costs.

"The total expenditure on security printing paper in all Dukcapil offices reach more than IDR400 billion (S$33,16 million) per year. Retiring security papers makes it much more efficient," Mensuseno says.

Since 2019, all population documents issued by Dukcapil use plain paper, except for ID cards. 

Mensuseno underlines that plain-paper documents can still be used as a trusted identity verification tool to access government services. 

"Just like electronic payment cards, the physical form no longer matters because what matters is the function."

Encourage more people to use digital ID 

The next step to improve efficiency is to reduce applications for new ID cards and encourage more people to switch to IKD app.  

Until December 2024, 18 million people have switched to IKD.  

The idea behind digital ID came from reducing the cost to procure physical ID, according to Mensuseno. 

For instance, the production cost of the new ID card is IDR10,000 (S$0.83) per card, including printing and shipping costs. If every year there are 10 million new applications, then a budget of at least IDR100 billion (S$8,29 million) is needed per year.  

"The growing number of 17-year-olds citizens [who are required to have ID card] is below 5 million every year. The demand increases due to the number of citizens who report damaged or lost cards, or those who want to replace their cards because they want to update their data such as marital status, address, and others," he continues. 

However, digital ID will not replace physical ID cards as not everyone can purchase or operate a smartphone. Physical ID cards can still be used and are valid for life. 

Mensuseno says it is not easy to transform all Dukcapil services to be fully digital given the various challenges faced. However, he believes that all population services will be fully digitalised in the future. 

This article was originally published in Bahasa Indonesia.