Although some doubt the statewide program’s affordability, Indonesia’s new government launched an ambitious $28 million project on Monday to feed almost 90 million children and pregnant women to combat stunting and malnutrition. President Prabowo Subianto, elected last year to govern the country of over 282 million people and the largest economy in Southeast Asia, fulfilled a campaign pledge with the Free Nutritious Meal initiative. According to him, the scheme will increase farmers’ incomes and the value of their harvest while combating the stunting of growth affecting 21.5% of Indonesian children under five.
Subianto claimed in his October inauguration speech that many children suffer from malnutrition and that his pledge to give free milk and school lunches to 83 million students at more than 400,000 schools nationwide is a component of a longer-term plan to build the country’s human capital in order to produce a Golden Indonesia” generation by 2045.
On the first day of the free meal program, Budi Arie Setiadi, Indonesia’s Minister of Cooperatives, pays a visit to the pupils at Jakarta’s Angkasa 5 Elementary School. AFP Too many of our children attend school without breakfast, too many of our siblings live below the poverty line, and too many of us lack school attire,” Subianto stated.
Free milk was part of Subianto’s hallmark scheme, which might have cost up to 450 trillion rupiah ($28 billion). “We are capable,” he declared, adding that his staff had calculated how to execute such a program.
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