Jakarta (VNA) ♔– About 8.6 million Indonesian families that are at risk of stunting have become the focus of intervention efforts, said Indonesian Population and Family Development Minister Wihaji.
The interventions range from nutritional fulfillment, clean water and sanitation provision, and child marriage prevention.
During a meeting with Commission IX of the House of Representatives (DPR) in Jakarta on July 1, Wihaji informed that several ministries and agencies are participating in stunting interventions. However, their efforts have not been effective so far since they did not target the root of the problem.
He noted the country is now focusing on the upstream factors, namely clean water, nutritional intake, sanitation, and child marriage.
According to the minister, the monitoring and evaluation of the stunting reduction programme must also be made clear and emphasise handling during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, or until the child turns two years old.
He cited his ministry’s data as showing that among the 8.6 million at-risk families, 3.7 million families do not have proper toilets, while 1.9 million do not have access to proper drinking water. In addition, 4.3 million at-risk families comprise couples of reproductive age who are either too young, too old, have too-short birth spacing, have too many children, or do not use contraceptives.
Wihaji added that his ministry has more than 18,000 family planning counsellors and 600,000 family assistant teams who will support stunting reduction efforts.
The Nutritional Status Survey, the main reference for accelerating stunting reduction efforts, pegged stunting prevalence in Indonesia at 19.8% in 2024, down from 21.5% in 2023./.
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