BKKBN Calls The Smart Village Of West Tulang Bawang Could Be An Example Of Reducing Stunting

Chairman of the Indonesian Midwives Association (IBI) Batang Suci Asih Regency (second left) handed over healthy food assistance to a number of mothers in Gerlang Village / Photo: Antara

JAKARTA - The National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) said the smart village innovation created by the West Tulangbawang Regency, Lampung could be used as a model for other regions to reduce the prevalence of stunting in children.

“This can be an example for other regions. This includes stunting audits, stunting consultations, family assistance. You just need to enter Elsimil (Electronic Application Ready for Marriage and Pregnancy) and also add target groups, including prospective brides," said Program Officer for Programs and Activities of the Secretariat Implementing the Acceleration of Stunting Reduction in the BKKBN Center Lucy Widasari in Jakarta, Tuesday, July 19.

He said that smart villages have advantages through strong data integration in all villages in Lampung Province, in accelerating the reduction of stunting rates. Smart village data shows 21,786 toddlers living in the district. However, 1,185 of them suffer from stunting.

The data presented also always displays the latest data so that assistance such as providing additional food for pregnant women and toddlers is right on target.

He added that the family is the first environment that will be known thoroughly by a child. In it, full assistance is needed so that both the health and the emotional condition of the child can be formed optimally.

Smart village, he said, also emphasized the importance of exclusive breastfeeding, which can strengthen the emotional closeness built by the mother with the baby for six months, as well as the development of the baby's social intelligence later.

“This is different from giving expressed breast milk because there is an emotional closeness that exists between mother and baby and of course affects the social intelligence of the baby. Then there are hormones from skin to skin contact which will affect the mother's parenting behavior," said Lucy.

Acting Regent of Tulangbawang Barat Zaidirina said there were already 93 villages in the area whose data were connected to smart villages as an effort to accelerate stunting reduction.

He explained that the Smart Village program is carried out by providing additional food for pregnant and lactating mothers and toddlers in the form of packages containing milk, quail eggs, and vegetables from the Village Fund budget.

Other programs carried out include the provision of vitamin A for pregnant women, infants, and toddlers, giving blood-added tablets for young women and monitoring the measurement of child growth and development at the posyandu.

"So people whose data are in smart villages (smart villages) need help, for example, stunting potential, the poor, the data is in smart villages. Then we have a card so that later we can take eggs and so on, just tap the data later to enter the smart village,” he said. He also said about local wisdom related to food security.

“We also have a nenemo slogan, namely nemen, nedes, and nerimo, it is local wisdom that is translated as nemen (work hard), nedes (endure test) and nerimo (accept). The slogan is aimed at achieving the food security target," he said.