Stunting is a serious health problem in Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara, with some 43 percent of children aged below 5 prone to impaired growth and development, according to a 2018 research study conducted by the Health Ministry.

Though the figure is a significant decrease compared to that of 2013, which estimated 58 percent of children were prone to stunting, any rate of stunting over 20 percent is considered by the World Health Organization to be very serious.

A staff member of the Manggarai Health Agency’s community health division, Moina Sagala, said that, based on her office’s Nutrition Status Monitoring system, the figures had fluctuated in recent years, from 23.2 percent in 2016 to 50.3 percent in 2017, and back down to 20 percent as of July this year.

"Of some 25,000 children below 5 years old that we measured, more than 3,000 were categorized as suffering from stunting" Moina said.

Tarsisius Hurmali, the director of Yayasan Ayo Indonesia, a foundation that has been focusing on stunting in Manggarai, blamed the issue on people’s lack of knowledge about stunting.

Humali said most people in remote areas thought that stunting was something “genetic” that could not be changed. Therefore, parents often consider their children healthy, even when they experience impaired growth.

Other factors that have led to stunting in Manggarai include a lack of awareness on the importance of health and nutritional needs. “In hinterland areas people even believe that health comes from God, ancestors and spirits,” Humali said.

Underlining the importance of spreading information about living a healthy lifestyle, Hurmali said that a person’s health was influenced by their behavior and that information was capable of changing behavior.

Moina emphasized the Manggarai administration’s commitment to dealing with stunting. A meeting on stunting attended by the regency’s village and district heads earlier this year concluded with an agreement for each village to allocate Rp 50 million (US$3,562) annually to deal with stunting.

Agustinus Abu of Golo village concurred, saying that his village was to realize the move starting next year. “The fund will be channeled through the nutrition post, which is to be established in the village,” he said.

In Malang, East Java, Vice President Ma’ruf Amin said that stunting prevention had been made a national program. The government, he said, was working to make sure that every baby was born healthy and with sufficient nutrition.

Speaking at his working visit in Tangkilsari village last week to monitor the stunting prevention program, Ma’ruf said that, for the mid-term plan, the government aimed to decrease the prevalence of stunting to 20 percent from 27.67 percent in 2019.

“The impact of stunting is very big because it deals with development, self-pride and the nation’s dignity,” he said, adding that the government programs to prevent stunting included improvements to people’s nutrition and sanitation quality and development of drinking water infrastructure.

Tangkilsari village head Sugiono said that, thanks to the village fund, his administration could focus more on developing clean water infrastructure, domestic waste management and its sanitation network.

Some of the factors that led to stunting cases in the village, he said, was disease spreading through the river that flows through the village and the lack of a clean water supply.

“Now it’s been met,” Sugiono said, explaining that 90 percent of the village’s population of 4,300 now had their own toilets as well as access to a clean water network.

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