Muhadjir: 54 Percent Of Indonesian Productive Workers Have Experienced Stunting

JAKARTA - The Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK) Muhadjir Effendy said 54 percent of productive workers in Indonesia had experienced stunting while still in the womb or as a baby. This data was obtained from the World Bank.

"According to the World Bank, the stunting rate, our workforce, infected or stunted during their infancy or in the womb, has reached 54 percent," Muhadjir said in a press conference broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube account, Monday, January 25.

For this reason, President Joko Widodo then paid great attention to the stunting rate in Indonesia. This is because if a baby or child has experienced stunting, the development of intelligence is not optimal when entering adulthood or productive.

There are also steps taken to reduce the stunting rate in Indonesia, namely by mapping the areas that often experience stunting. This, said Muhadjir, is important to do so that in the future the government can make concrete and measurable steps.

In addition, Jokowi ordered the budgets spread across 20 ministries and institutions to be focused on the related ministries or institutions. Thus, only a few ministries and agencies focus on stunting.

"The president also gave directions so that among the ministries of the institution there is one who is responsible as the chief executive, so that later when the president asks for accountability it is clear to whom," said the former Minister of Education and Culture.

As previously reported, Muhadjir said that President Jokowi had targeted to reduce the stunting rate by 14 percent in 2024. He said this was conveyed in a limited meeting to determine steps to reduce stunting.

"The President has given us directions that by 2024, Indonesia's stunting rate is targeted to fall closer to 14 percent," Muhadjir said in a press conference broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube account, Monday, January 25.

He said this reduction must be done considering that the stunting rate in the country was still quite high, namely 27.6 percent in 2019 and is expected to increase in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thus, to achieve the specified target, the stunting rate must decrease by 2.7 percent in at least a year.

"This is a very large target and because of that the President has given directions so that there will be extraordinary or extra ordinary steps," he said.