Malnutrition in Indonesia: Another form of the nation's poverty

Disasters keep flooding Indonesia; natural and unnatural. There was SARS, then the bird flu, and followed by the tsunami strike. Not much had happened since then, but not for long. Early this month malnutrition cases widened and broke the silence.

Dyah Ayu Wanodyasari
Indonesia - 05/08/2005
  It made national headlines after 935 cases of hunger edema have been found in six provinces including: Bali, East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, West Borneo, South Borneo, and North Maluku. In East Java, 32 infants have died so far because of similar case.

However, West Nusa Tenggara has the highest rate of all with 655 cases; which sparked concern among the public since the province is one of the rice self-sufficient areas of the country. It is absurd that the cases occurred among farmer families; the food producers. What is more is that the dry season has not yet to come, which further means the rice fields and farmlands still have enough water. Yet to live in rice surplus area offers no insurance against malnutrition. It is not enough only to eat rice everyday, even when it is the people's staple food.

On June 10, Deby Henukh, 13, died due to the same case after receiving intensive treatment for a month on a hospital in East Nusa Tenggara. Her parents, which are farmers, earned IDR 200,000 (USD 21) a month, and thus they could not afford any other food than rice and corn. Those were what they ate nearly everyday.

As true as when the chicken could die of starvation in the rice barn, to live in a rich area is not the same as being rich itself. This case has not only occurred in agricultural provinces. Among the metropolitan glamour of Jakarta, 8,455 of the total 923,000 children in the city were in desperate need of nutritious food. The report was made by the Jakarta Health Agency during the city's
celebration of its 478th anniversary on June 22. Ironically, the governor made no mention about this subject on his speech and only focused on the city's economic growth of 5.24 percent and a low inflation rate of 5.87percent, which he referred to as a huge economy improvement.

"One child is in an acute condition and the other 38 are malnourished. Twenty five are in hospital, but we consider the condition of the other 14 allows them to be treated at home," said the head of Jakarta Health Agency Abdul Chalik Masulili.

The Jakarta governor may not belong to those unfortunate people, but the number of poor people has shockingly occupied 16.4 percent of the country's population of 220 million, or roughly 36 million people. Some suggest the actual figure is nearer to 50 million.

To solve the problem, the government promised to allocate IDR 83.5 billion (about USD 8.7 million) in emergency funds to West and East Nusa Tenggara as the worst affected.

Azas Tigor Nainggolan of the Jakarta Residents Forum (FAKTA) said the government's programs only worked on the surface and were not sustainable. "The programs pursue short term objectives. Here, have the rice; and that's it. Instead of charity, the programs should focus on people empowerment that will set them free from poverty," Azas said.

He may be right, since poverty programs remain far from successful. Sandyawan Sumardi, a priest who works with poor communities, said that every poverty eradication program should involve poor people themselves from the initial stage to the evaluation phase, while the government should only serve as a facilitator.

"The stigma that poor people are lazy is not true. They have worked hard, doing different informal jobs at the same time. Unfortunately, they still earn very little. These people should have been assisted with small- and middle-scale enterprise programs," said Sandyawan.

Poverty is a complicated issue which is not only related to economy, but also education, health services and the judicial systems. It is what had to happen to thirteen-month-old Muhammad Azmi. He suffered chronic undernourishment which caused swollen abdomen and legs while his weight was only eight kilograms, because his mother simply did not know what nutritious food is. Suli, the mother who is elementary graduate, earns IDR 5,000 (52 US cents) for sowing rice seedlings on a one hectare plot, and gets 15 kilograms of rice for stripping the husks of 100 kilograms of rice during harvest time. That is what her family ate; and that is nutritious food for her.

This case has been obviously happening for sometime before people began to take a notice. It may also take sometime until the government could find the right solution; but it is urgent that these people must be given opportunities, access, infrastructure, and capital, to erase poverty and live a more decent life like the others. Yet, this is Indonesia; where poverty and prosperity live side by side peacefully but with no heart to care about each other.

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