Health Minister Proposes Free Nutritious Meals for Tuberculosis Patients

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has proposed that tuberculosis (TB) patients become beneficiaries of the free nutritious meals (MBG) project. He said the proposal has been conveyed to the head of the National Nutrition Agency, Nanik Sudaryati Deyang.

Budi said the physical condition and immune resistance of TB patients during treatment are weak, according to international journal research. He stated that, from a health perspective, TB patients suffering from malnutrition are particularly vulnerable.

“Thus, if TB patients can receive adequate or slightly more nutrition, it will strengthen and accelerate their recovery,” he said at the Parliament Complex in Senayan, Jakarta, on Tuesday, 23 June 2026.

Budi said nutritional intervention through the distribution of MBG helps his ministry solve health problems. Moreover, he noted, tuberculosis is known as a deadly disease.

“Around 126,000 per year. So, in the five minutes we are talking, two people have died from TB in Indonesia,” he said.

Besides TB patients, Budi revealed that pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and toddlers are groups that should receive MBG. “If the nutritional adequacy of these four targets is met, our health problems will drop drastically,” he said.

However, Budi does not yet know the realisation of the proposal for TB patients to become MBG recipients. He said the proposal is still at the discussion stage with the agency implementing the meal distribution project.

In a separate occasion, the National Nutrition Agency stated it is currently reviewing a new distribution scheme for the free nutritious meals, taking into account the social and economic conditions of beneficiaries. One of the indicators being considered is a specific decile group or level of community welfare.

BGN spokesperson Agustina Arumsari said decile will not be the sole reference in determining target beneficiaries. However, this indicator will be combined with nutritional vulnerability and community access to meeting nutritional needs.

“Decile is only one indicator. Later there will be indicators of nutritional vulnerability, socio-economic conditions where one parameter is decile, and access to nutritional fulfilment. We are still processing and formulating the criteria,” Arumsari said at a press conference at the BGN office in Central Jakarta, Thursday, 18 June 2026.

She said BGN is still formulating a more precise and efficient formula for determining target beneficiaries. The discussion of this scheme will be conducted together with the Ministry of Finance in preparing the MBG programme budget for 2027.

BGN has not yet determined which decile group will be the priority target. The agency is still processing data before making a final decision. “If asked now exactly what it will look like, we are still drafting the formula,” she said.

The review is being carried out as BGN evaluates the budget requirements for the MBG programme next year. According to Arumsari, the assumption of 81 million beneficiaries, which formed the basis of the MBG 2027 budget proposal, still needs to be reviewed.

Arumsari considers that the number of beneficiaries is potentially too large compared to actual needs and the government’s current fiscal condition. Therefore, BGN is currently reworking several assumptions, including the beneficiary targeting mechanism.

“That figure arose from the assumption of 81 million beneficiaries. We still consider that number too large,” she said.