Garut Regent Bans Staff From Outside City Services During 'Stunting Search Month' Program

A number of state civil servants participated in the event for handling children's health failure to thrive in Garut Regency, West Java for some time. ANTARA/HO-Diskominfo Garut

GARUT - Garut Regent Rudy Gunawan forbade his staff from going out of town for any activities during the implementation of the "Stunting Search Month" which was implemented in June.

"During June there should be no comparative studies, copy studies conducted by local governments," said Rudy while leading a limited joint meeting which was held virtually with a number of ASN in the Garut Regency Government, quoted by Antara, Monday, May 30.

In early June, the Garut Regency Government declared "Stunting Search Month" as part of a major movement in dealing with cases of children failing to thrive, for that requires the role of all ASN in the sub-district and every regional technical implementing unit to move to the field.

The number of stunting cases or failure to thrive in Garut, he said, there is a difference with the data held by the Ministry of Health, which is 35 percent, while based on data in Garut it is 13 percent, so the case must be looked for based on data from the Ministry of Health.

Rudy hopes that all service heads and sub-districts within the Garut Regency Government will not work outside the city during June so that the search for data on cases of children failing to thrive can be found accurately.

"We want us to focus first on issues related to the month of weighing babies, and we have already issued a budget for recording and so on," he said.

The Regent emphasized that the local government had issued a budget to support activities in the field in dealing with cases of children failing to thrive by weighing and checking the health of babies in Garut.

He conveyed that this step was in accordance with the direction of the President of the Republic of Indonesia as stated in Presidential Regulation Number 72 of 2021 concerning the Acceleration of Stunting Reduction which must be implemented immediately until 2024.

"I hope that because this is the president's instruction, a presidential regulation, this is about Perpres 72 which must be implemented in order to overcome the stunting problem, so we will carry out movements in the regions," he said.