A legislator of United Development Party (PPP) Okky Asokawati called on President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo and his government to take concrete measures to handle malnutrition, which has claimed five human lives in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) between January and May, 2015
A legislator of United Development Party (PPP) Okky Asokawati called on President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo and his government to take concrete measures to handle malnutrition, which has claimed five human lives in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) between January and May, 2015.
'A total of 1,918 children under-five suffered malnutrition from January to May 2015 and 11 of them died. Where are you, Mr. President?' Okky said in a press release here on Friday.
Okky said that Indonesia at present had the greatest number of stunted children in Southeast Asia and the number of malnutrition cases among children continued increasing.
He said that the government has yet to give adequate attention to this issue as it has been shown in the 2015 state budget. In the Health Ministry's 2015 budget worth Rp 75 trillion, only seven percent was allocated to nutrition.
According to him, malnutrition is part of the state resilience because the latter could not be maintained without a better quality of life for the population.
Malnutrition has become a serious issue since the majority of farmers cannot farm well due to the drought hitting the province. (rms)
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