Anies Insinuates School Children's Free Lunch Program To Prevent Stunting: It's Too Late

Presidential Candidate Anies Baswedan And Vice Presidential Candidate Muhaimin Iskandar/PHOTO: Diah Ayu-VOI

Presidential candidate number 1, Anies Baswedan, criticized free lunch and milk programs for school children and pregnant women. This program is the mainstay of presidential and vice presidential candidates number 2 Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka during the campaign period.

What Anies highlighted was the provision of lunch and milk for school children for the reduction in stunting rates. According to Anies, stunting prevention can no longer be done at school age. This is because stunting intervention efforts can only have an impact on the first 1,000 days of life.

"This stunting is indeed a problem because it hinders the growth of our children and the impact for life. But the handling cannot be done during school, so it is not enough to be given lunch, it is too late. It is not enough," said Anies at Anies' Desak event at Half Patiunus, South Jakarta, Thursday, January 18.

Thus, prevention of stunting with free lunch and milk programs can only be given to pregnant women. However, that's not enough. According to Anies, the government also needs to pay attention to the health of prospective babies from up to 1,000 birth days.

"So it's not about one type of food, but to make sure the nutrition is healthy, per immunization is correct at an early age. What is no less important is that we can't make it complicated for pregnant women and mothers who have just given birth. It's actually made as easy as possible anywhere and anytime," said Anies.

Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka promised to provide free lunch for school students, including pregnant women if elected president in the upcoming 2024 General Election. This program will cost IDR 400 trillion.

In 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 aims to eradicate 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," said Prabowo.

Then, Gibran Rakabuming Raka has also revealed that the free lunch and milk program is an effort to reduce stunting rates in Indonesia.

"We focus on socializing the program. There is a free lunch and milk program for children so that there is no stunting, so that all children are healthy," he said.