Stunted children are those who have a body length of less than 48 centimeters and weigh less than 2.5 kilograms due to the lack of nutrition, or malnutrition, from the time the fetus is in the womb until the first thousand days of life.
In Indonesia itself, the condition of stunting has remained alarming. The prevalence of stunting in the country was still in the range of 27.67 percent in 2019, which was still far from the standard set by the WHO, which requires the stunting rate to be no more than 20 percent.
This alarming trend became even more evident after data from the World Bank showed that 54 percent of the Indonesian workforce suffered from stunting in their childhood. That means 54 percent of the working force are stunting survivors, observers said.
According to head of the National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN), Hasto Wardoyo, one in five babies, or 1.2 million babies, are born stunted in Indonesia.
“Even those who were born normal still have the potential to experience stunting. Therefore, it is crucial to give breast milk to children up until two years of age and ensure they eat a balanced nutritious diet,” he said.
Stunting will remain a threat as long as the community has a wrong understanding of nutritional intake, he added.
Today's society prefers to give fast food or expensive food, such as meat, to children without considering balanced nutrient intake, he explained.
This wrong perception eventually becomes a mindset that a balanced diet can only be achieved with expensive foods, he said.
As a result, even though children eat large portions of food, their nutritional needs are not met, thereby starving the cells in the children's bodies, he elaborated.
In fact, children's nutritional needs can be met through the consumption of cheap foods, such as eggs and fish, Wardoyo pointed out. Fish and eggs contain more DHA and omega-3 substances, he added.
“Many people have the perception that eating expensive beef is prestigious though it actually does not contain much DHA, omega-3. Cheap foods like catfish or mackerel have them (DHA and omega-3) more,” he pointed out.
Lack of awareness on maternal nutrition before the birth of a child also contributes to stunting, he noted.
According to the 2018 Basic Health Research data, more than 40 percent of mothers are affected by anemia due to a lack of attention to maternal health. This has also contributed to stunting at birth, Wardoyo said.
The data has prompted the government to take serious actions to eliminate stunting, including the issuance of Presidential Regulation Number 72 of 2021 concerning the acceleration of stunting reduction to 14 percent by 2024, he added.
Starting from Batam, Riau Islands
To achieve the national target that has been set in the regulation, Wardoyo said BKKBN has started to monitor stunting in several regions, one of which is Batam city, Riau Islands province.
With a population of 1.2 million, Batam city has a stunting prevalence rate of 6.02 percent, which is far below the national average. Meanwhile, the stunting rate in Riau Islands is pegged 16.8 percent, Wardoyo noted.
With a little more reduction, Batam city could be considered as one of the “zero stunting” cities because of its low prevalence rate, he said.
"I am optimistic that this can be achieved because stunting in this area is the second-lowest in Indonesia," he affirmed.
"I am optimistic that Riau Islands, especially Batam city, could become an example of stunting handling in Indonesia. I think it is going to be realized well," he added.
To realize "zero stunting", starting from Batam city, the BKKBN visited several villages and established cooperation with 27 universities, including Batam University, to assist families that are at risk of stunting, Wardoyo informed.
This effort has received a tremendous response from students and the people of Batam city because all parties indeed have one voice: to free children from stunting, he said.
This support has helped the BKKBN inaugurate 28 villages in Batam as stunting-free villages as well as form 545 teams spread over 64 villages to assist stunting handling, he added.
Government’s efforts
Besides its efforts in Batam city, the BKKBN has also continued its initiative to improve the nutrition of both mothers and babies across the nation.
In addition to making Presidential Regulation Number 72 of 2021, the BKKBN has made several efforts, including compiling the 2021 Family Data Collection (PK21), which can help map areas with high stunting rates in the country, Wardoyo said.
"Through the data collected, I hope local governments can immediately identify the problems related to family and family health that exist in their respective regions, especially in stunting prevention," he remarked.
The government has also continued to strive to improve balanced nutritional intake among pregnant women through the "Healthy Kitchen to Overcome Stunting" (Dashat) program, he informed.
The kitchens sell food that meets the nutritional needs of pregnant women at an affordable price, he said.
The BKKBN has even tried to improve public knowledge about the importance of spacing pregnancies through information dissemination and the provision of contraceptives in hospitals, he said.
Wardoyo further said he hoped that all the efforts that are being made bring blessings to the nation, especially in ensuring that the nation's children grow in a healthy manner.
Stunting can damage the quality of the nation's human resources in the future, observers have noted. Therefore, it is essential for stunting to become our common concern and be resolved immediately through the provision of good and balanced nutrition to children, they added.
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Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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