President Prabowo Subianto made a major electoral pledge to fight stunted growth caused by malnutrition, and on Monday, Indonesia inaugurated an ambitious $4.3 billion free-meal program.
Tens of millions of schoolchildren and expectant mothers will receive free nutritious meals thanks to Prabowo’s proposal, which he claims would enhance their quality of life and spur economic growth.
“This is historic for Indonesia for the first time conducting a nationwide nutrition programme for toddlers, students, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers,” presidential spokesman Hasan Nasbi said late on Sunday.
Third-party catering firms opened at least 190 kitchens across the country, some of which were operated by military installations. These kitchens were busy making meals from midnight till they were served to pregnant women and schoolchildren.
Students’ meals will cost 10,000 rupiahs (62 US cents) each, with kitchens making rice, protein, veggies, and fruit.
Nearly 83 million individuals are expected to get meals from the program by 2029, with a budget of 71 trillion rupiah ($4.3 billion) for the fiscal year 2025.
The goal of the free meal program is to combat stunting, which affects 21.5% of children in the 282 million-person archipelago.
The Southeast Asian nation aims to reduce the rate to five percent by 2045.
Prabowo has championed the programme since last year’s presidential campaign and his team has said the poorest and most remote areas of the Southeast Asian archipelago would be prioritised.
He travelled to several countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, after he was sworn in last October seeking funding support.
He secured a $10 billion deal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in November for support in several sectors, including the free-meal programme.
However, analysts have said the scheme is not sustainable in the long term.
“I am quite pessimistic if everything is shouldered by the central government. Economically, it’s not sustainable,” Aditya Alta, a public policy analyst from the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies think tank, told AFP.
“Stunting is a multidimensional issue and addressing it through just one approach is insufficient,” he said.
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