Calculating Prabowo's Free Lunch Program Fees For School Children And Pregnant Women, Can It Be Realized?

Prabowo's vice presidential candidate, Gibran Rakabuming Raka distributed milk to residents at the HI Roundabout, Central Jakarta, Sunday (3/12/2023). (ANTARA)

YOGYAKARTA Presidential Candidate (Capres) promoted by the Forward Indonesia Coalition (KIM), Prabowo Subianto promised to give free lunch to school students, including pregnant women if elected president in the upcoming 2024 General Election. So, is the program realistic? To find out, we need to calculate Prabowo's free lunch costs. Come on, read until the following article is over.

Previously, at the Sarasehan 100 Economist 2023 event which was held on Wednesday, November 8, 2023, Prabowo Subianto said that the free lunch program for school children and pregnant women was aimed at stunting.

Our strategy is to provide lunch to all Indonesian children, including those who are still pregnant with their mothers. Our pregnant women are supported and this is a long-term strategy to eliminate stunting and reduce the burden on the poor," Prabowo said, quoted by VOI.

According to Prabowo, the free lunch program for school children must take into account the government's budget capabilities.

"We calculate the current capacity, we have only given one meal, there is a snack, there is milk," explained Prabowo.

He added that the free lunch program for all students and pregnant women is estimated to cost up to RP400 trillion.

Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the number of students from Kindergarten (TK) to High School (SMA) reached 57.98 million people, with the largest percentage at the Elementary School (SD) or at the level of Madrasah Ibtidaiyah, which was 28.3 million.

Next, referring to the Ministry of Education, the number of effective school days for the 2023/2024 school year is 25 days.

Prabowo promised to give free lunch and milk. To eat, consider the cost of Rp. 15,000 per child. As for milk, it is around Rp. 3,000 per child.

If the number of Indonesian students is 57.98 million and the number of school days is 255 days, the cost required for free lunch is estimated at IDR 221.80 trillion. Meanwhile, the budget needed to buy milk is around IDR 44.36 trillion.

Overall, the costs required to provide lunch and milk to school children reach IDR 266.16 trillion in a year.

These costs do not include programs for free lunch for toddlers and assistance for pregnant women.

According to BPS, the number of toddlers in Indonesia reaches 22,094,425 people. If one child gets 10,000 meals per year, the cost of a free lunch program for a year reaches IDR 80.6 trillion.

If you add up the free lunch program for all students, the figure will be IDR 346.81 trillion. This budget can be even greater if you add a lunch program for pregnant women.

Regarding the free lunch program, Prabowo said that the budget to realize the program already has an allocation.

The 2024 education budget is IDR 660 trillion. If you eat lunch for school children, is this going to education or not? So actually, if it is IDR 400 trillion, there is an allocation.

As additional information, if Prabowo's free lunch program costs are taken from the state budget, this program will take an 8 percent portion of the total government budget which reaches IDR 3,200 trillion per year. This amount is very large for programs that are potentially not on target and have the opportunity to become a new corruption land.

This is information about the calculation of the cost of Prabowo's free lunch program. Get other interesting news updates only on VOI.ID.