Indonesia expands free meals program beneficiaries to enhance human resource quality

Jakarta, Aug 27 (IANS) Indonesia will expand its free meals programme, set to be implemented in 2025, to benefit not only school students but also pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers, according to Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati on Tuesday.

"The government agrees with the parliamentary factions that the free meals programme, funded by the state budget, should also target pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers," Indrawati said during a hearing with parliament.

The programme aims to improve nutritional adequacy, enhance child intelligence, prevent stunting and ultimately boost the quality of human resources in the country, Indrawati added, Xinhua news agency reported.

Preventing stunting remains a priority for the government, which successfully reduced its prevalence from 37.2 per cent in 2013 to 21.5 per cent in 2023.

The government has allocated approximately 71 trillion rupiah (around 4.57 billion US dollars), or 0.29 per cent of the gross domestic product, to the programme. It also aims to stimulate economic growth by around 0.10 per cent through the employment of 820,000 micro, small and medium Enterprises (MSME) workers linked to the programme.

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