Involve 11 Thousand Foster Parents, 229 Thousand Children In Stunting Risk Has Been Afforded By The Ministry Of Education And Culture

Menduk bangga/Head of BKKBN Wihaji (left) while visiting the house of one of the stunting risk families in Pinang District, Tangerang City. (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The government through the Ministry of Population and Development of the National Family (Kemenduk bangga)/BKKBN noted significant achievements in efforts to prevent stunting in Indonesia. To date, as many as 229 thousand children are at risk of stunting has been affordable through the Foster Parent Movement Prevent Stunting (Genting) program, which involves the participation of 11 thousand foster parents from various regions.

"We have mobilized 11,000 foster parents who together accompany 229 thousand children throughout the country. This is a tangible form of multi-party collaboration or pentahelix to realize a superior future generation, starting from pregnancy to a two-year-old child," said the Minister of Population and Family Development/Head of BKKBN, Wihaji, during a working visit in Tangerang City, Banten, Tuesday.

He emphasized that overcoming the problem of stunting cannot be done only by the government. Cooperation from various elements, including the private sector, is needed to provide nutrition intervention, repair inappropriate housing, and reorganize environmental sanitation.

"Several main causes of stunting such as uninhabitable houses and poor sanitation have begun to be overcome through collaboration. For example, the Ministry of Education and Culture together with the Tangerang City Government and Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) provided weekly basic food assistance for six months to 200 families in Tangerang," he explained.

In the context of the national program, Wihaji also mentioned the implementation of the Free Nutrition Food Program (MBG) which is one of President Prabowo Subianto's priorities. This program is targeted to reach 82.9 million recipients, including pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, toddlers, and school children. For now, MBG is still in its early stages with six million targets, but in the future it will be expanded gradually.

"Collaboration with the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) is already underway. Later the distribution of MBG for vulnerable groups such as pregnant women and toddlers will be prioritized. However, because the program scale is very large, we need acceleration through community participation, including foster parents," explained Wihaji.

He also appreciated the achievement of Tangerang City which succeeded in reducing the stunting rate to 11.2 percent in 2024, lower than the national average of 19.8 percent. According to him, urban conditions that are more organized in terms of nutrition, sanitation, access to clean water, and prevention of early marriage contributed greatly to this success.

"City residents have better access to sensitive interventions, so stunting prevention is more effective. Factors such as clean water, diet, and sanitation tend to be more easily controlled in urban areas," he said.

In the future, the Genting program is targeted to reach one million stunting-risk children by 2025. The value of assistance from foster parents who have been distributed is currently estimated at IDR 266 billion, and all of them are given directly to beneficiaries without going through the ministry, to ensure transparency and efficiency.

"All assistance from foster parents is distributed directly to families in need, without intermediaries. This is to ensure that there are no obstacles or potential abuse in the field," concluded Wihaji.