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One third of Indonesia children suffer stunted growth

Jakarta Post - November 21, 2014

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Jakarta – Despite Indonesia's achievement of becoming the world's 10th-largest economy, it is struggling to provide adequate childhood nutrition with the number of children suffering from stunted growth remaining high nationwide.

"One-third of children in Indonesia are suffering stunted growth," Iing Mursalin, health and nutrition project specialist at Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Indonesia, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

According to UNICEF data in 2013, Indonesia stood in fifth place among countries with the highest numbers of stunted children around the world.

The number of stunted children reached 7.6 million in 2013 globally. The figure was alarming as it showed that some children in Indonesia suffered chronic malnutrition for long periods of time.

"North Sumatra is one of the provinces that has the highest [...] average rate of stunted children in Indonesia," he said, citing data compiled by the WHO in 2010.

Meanwhile, he said that Yogyakarta was the province with the lowest prevalence of children suffering stunted growth.

In addition, MCA communications and outreach director Farah Amini said that 30 percent of Indonesia's stunted children came from middle-class families. "It shows that there are some problems with our lifestyle and parenting styles," she said.

Iing acknowledged Farah, saying that most people in Indonesia prioritized the elderly when it came to food and nutrition, often allowing senior groups to eat the best meals.

"Cultural values are one of the things that disrupt the nutrition absorption of pregnant women and children, especially in poor families," Iing said.

To date, the government is giving more attention to the issues of wasted and underweight children, as stunting is still a considerably new issue.

"Even highly qualified hospitals in Jakarta do not measure a child's height though it is an indicator of a child's nutritional adequacy," said Farah. The MCA is an entity established in April 2013 to manage a US$600-million grant that was derived from the Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact, a comprehensive partnership between the US and Indonesia. (ask/nfo)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/11/21/one-third-ri-children-suffer-stunted-growth.html.