I

ndonesia enjoys an abundance of natural resources for its people to consume. Ironically, however, the country still sees a considerably high number of its population with stunting — impaired growth and development as a result of poor nutrition, recurring infections and inadequate psychosocial stimulation.

A 2009 study by UNICEF revealed that stunting remained a chronic problem in Indonesia despite it being classed as an emerging economy. We were placed in a league with the five countries that have the most cases of stunting in the world, alongside India, China, Nigeria and Pakistan.

The Health Ministry’s latest general health study of 2013, which is conducted every five years, found that 37.5 percent of children below 5, or around 9 million children nationwide, were stunted or severely stunted.

As today’s Special Report reveals, undernourishment is apparently the leading cause of stunting, which leads to undersized brains among children that can impair their ability to learn. The resulting low cognitive abilities will likely mean that they will lose out on decent jobs as adults.

Meanwhile, scientists have found that stunting is also responsible for deaths — among both children and adults — from illnesses like pneumonia, diarrheal diseases, meningitis, tuberculosis and hepatitis, particularly because stunted children, especially those with severe developmental impairment, have poor immune systems.

The government of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has taken measures to tackle the problem, ordering 12 ministries to team up and make all effort to reduce the national stunting rate to at least 28 percent by 2019. This target, however, is considered below expectations. Furthermore, the WHO defines stunting as a public health issue when its prevalence in a particular country reaches 20 percent or above.

While the government is seriously committed to combating the condition, many medical practitioners and nutritionists consider even the targeted 28 percent as too ambitious. They refer to widespread public ignorance on nutritious foods and their importance in the physical and mental development of infants. Such ignorance is inseparable from the large numbers of poor people and their difficulty in providing adequate nutrition for their children.

The efforts to reduce the statistical figure of this public health problem, if not its complete eradication, do not fall merely within the governmental domain, and is instead the collective responsibility of all elements of the nation.