Stunting And How To Prevent It Asks The Vice President To Become Dakwah Material

JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin asked that the stunting (child stunting) and prevention issues should be used as material for the lectures of the dai and daiyah.

"I think the role of dai, daiyah and religious instructors is very vital, because they are present directly in the community.carrying, lectures, and tausiah can be an effective educational medium to forward messages of kindness to the people, including education about the dangers of stunting and how to prevent it," explained Vice President Ma'ruf at the Vice Presidential Palace. Jakarta, Thursday 6 October.

The Vice President conveyed this when giving a speech in "The National Halkah of the Involvement of Religious Counselers, Dai and Daiyah to Support the Acceleration of Stunting Reduction" which was also attended by the Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, Head of the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) Hasto Wardoyo and daiyah.

Stunting is a chronic nutritional problem caused by lack of nutritional intake for a long time, generally due to eating intake that does not meet nutritional needs. Stunting occurs from the womb and is only seen when the child is two years old.

Vice President Ma'ruf who is also the Head of the Steering Committee for the Acceleration of Stunting Reduction Team explained that the results of the 2021 Indonesian Nutrition Status Study noted that approximately 1 in 4 Indonesian toddlers were stunted.

"Stunting has the potential to have a multiplier impact, because it interferes with the development of the child's brain, it threatens to achieve productivity as an adult. This means that stunting is not just a health issue, but also a humanitarian problem, it can even hinder the economy and the future of state development," explained the Vice President, quoted from Antara.

The government has also taken steps to deal with stunting. To achieve the 14 percent stunting target in 2024, while the "stunting" prevalence rate in Indonesia in 2021 is 24.4 percent.

"Quick work, smart work are needed, and most importantly, collaborative work is needed because of the congregational work of all parties, including the active participation of religious instructors, dai, and daiyah," added Wpares.

Whereas based on a global survey of 164 countries in 2021, Indonesia ranks 7th most religious in the world, meaning for the majority of our population, religion becomes a compass that determines the purpose of life, to practice in everyday life.

"This characteristics of the Indonesian people offer opportunities that we must arrest, namely education through a religious approach. Moreover, about 87 percent of the population of Indonesia is Muslims. Therefore, the role of brothers and sisters as religious leaders, leaders of Islamic community organizations, religious instructors, dai, and daiyah is very strategic," said the Vice President.

Religious instructors, dai and daiyah, according to the Vice President, become the delivery of religious values and messages in the community, as well as a source of knowledge (manbaul 'ulum), educators (murabbi), movers (muharrik), and role models (uswatun hasanah) for the people.

"I convey that jihad can be done in various ways, to convey the truth and goodness in the context of amar ma'ruf and nahi munkar. By conveying (prevention) stunting, it means conveying something useful and eliminating harm. Stunting is harm and eliminating it is good," said Vice President Ma'ruf Amin.

In line with the Vice President, Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas said that preventing stunting through religious lectures was the elaboration or application of religious orders.

"Why? Religion orders us not to inherit a weak and good generation, and vice versa we have to prepare the best stage. Mobilizing lecturers are also not easy in giving messages of da'wah to convey narratives about stunting, it is necessary to understand and understand the public," he said.

The results of the Indonesian Nutrition Status Survey (SSGI) show that 7 provinces with the highest stunting prevalence are East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) 37.8 percent, West Sulawesi 33.8 percent, Aceh 33.2 percent, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) 31.4 percent, Southeast Sulawesi 30.2 percent, South Kalimantan 30.0 percent, and West Kalimantan 29.8 percent.

Meanwhile, there are also 5 provinces with the largest number of stunting Toddlers, namely West Java 971,792, Central Java 651,708, East Java 508,618, North Sumatra 347,437, and Banten 268,158.