President Joko Widodo is targeting the national stunting rate to be at 14 percent by 2024, while our target is 14 percent in 2023Surakarta, Central Java (ANTARA) - The government of Central Java is targeting to bring down the province’s childhood stunting rate from 20.9 percent to 14 percent by late 2023 by providing assistance to families that are at risk of stunting.
At 20.9 percent, Central Java's stunting rate is currently 4 percent lower than the national rate, head of the National Population and Family Planning Agency's (BKKBN's) representative office in Central Java, Widwiono, said on the sidelines of an education and donation event for family assistance teams (TPKs) in Boyolali district, Central Java, on Thursday.
"President Joko Widodo is targeting the national stunting rate to be at 14 percent by 2024, while our target is 14 percent in 2023," he added.
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It is even hoped that the stunting rate would dip below 10 percent by 2024, he said.
"We have carried out joint work, including deploying around 83 thousand family assistants who have been tasked with assisting the targets," he added.
According to Widwiono, there are three target recipients for the assistance, namely, prospective brides, pregnant women, and parents of children aged under two.
Meanwhile, head of the Population Control, Family Planning, Women's Empowerment and Child Protection (DP2KBP3A) Agency of Boyolali district, Ratri S. Survivalina, said that as of December 2021, the stunting rate in Boyolali district stood at around 8 percent, or far below the national rate.
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The agency is currently prioritizing promotive and preventive efforts for handling stunting in the district, she added. "There should not be any additional cases of stunting," she stressed.
The number of family assistance teams in Boyolali district is around 800, she said. They are assisting 132,283 families that are at risk of stunting in the region.
"From that number, the most (number of at-risk families) is in Ngemplak sub-district: as many as 10,929 families," she informed.
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Translator: Aris Wasita, Raka Adji
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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