Vice President: Of 146 Countries, Indonesia Sits In 7th Place In The Most Religious Countries In The World

Vice President (Vice President) Ma'ruf Amin. (dok BPMI Setwapres)

JAKARTA - Vice President (Vice President) Ma'ruf Amin said Indonesia was ranked seventh as the most religious country in the world based on a survey of 146 countries in 2021.

"The role of religious leaders, leaders of Islamic organizations, religious instructors, dai, and daiyah is very strategic in educating the public, through a religious approach regarding the negative impact of stunting," said the Vice President at the 'National Halaqoh' event which was followed online, quoted from Antara, Thursday, October 6.

The vice president added that the ranking was obtained based on the fact that Indonesia has a large population and the entire population has embraced a religion that is used as their respective beliefs. Even 87 percent of them have embraced Islam.

However, as a country that is considered religious, Indonesia is still faced with the problem of building the quality of its population due to stunting. In fact, in the near future, Indonesia will welcome the peak of the demographic bonus where productive residents are predicted to reach twice the age population of children and the elderly.

Responding to this, the Vice President explained that in the Quran it was stated that a civilization would be very disadvantaged if it left a weak descendant behind them, which was not prosperous.

"Stunting will have an impact not only on health but also on the economy, education is not good, stunting is a source of disaster if we don't overcome it," he said.

Therefore, stunting should be resolved because Indonesia also has dai, daiyah, and religious instructors who have a role as a forum to forward messages of kindness to people such as education about the dangers of stunting through lectures, sermons, and tausiah.

"Brothers, you are conveying religious values and messages in the community as well as a source of knowledge, educators as well, drivers as well, and role models for the people," he said.

As an effort to realize a generation of religious and healthy nations, Ma'ruf reminded the lecturers to insert stunting material in their da'wah through six principles, namely inviting people to live a clean and healthy life and eat nutritious food, especially for mothers and babies until the age of two years.

Another aspect is the importance of providing good parenting, providing exclusive breast milk for six months including six months of breast milk complementary foods and consuming blood added tablets for young women, prospective brides and pregnant women.

Another material is to prevent child marriage and approach in a polite and easy-to-understand manner.

Head of BKKBN Hasto Wardoyo emphasized that success for a country can be measured through the human development index. The state will progress if the people have a long, healthy, and productive life.

Indonesia, he said, would indeed enjoy a demographic bonus. However, the shadow of stunting which is a condition of failure to grow in children due to malnutrition, brings disaster to the quality of the nation's successors in the future.

With the stunting rate still touching 24.4 percent, the involvement of religious instructors, dai, and daiyah is expected to accelerate the reduction in stunting prevalence by 14 percent in 2024.

Hasto thanked the Ministry of Religion for being willing to assist the BKKBN in an effort to accelerate the reduction of national stunting through the guidance of the marriage of the bride and groom which was carried out three months before marriage.