Ignorance worsens malnutrition: Farid

Ignorance worsens malnutrition: Farid

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Health Farid Anfasa Moeloek said on
Wednesday malnutrition problems found among the country's
children were not only due to economic deprivation but also
because of a lack of knowledge on health issues.

The minister said his conclusion was based on recent tours of
various regions where he found, among other things, a civil
servant who had stopped breast-feeding her three-month-old baby
and was instead bottle-feeding the child with sweetened tea.

"I myself witnessed that it is not only economic problems...
(malnutrition) is partially because of mothers' ignorance," Farid
said after attending a six-hour monthly Cabinet meeting on
people's welfare at the Bina Graha presidential office.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) has predicted that
the economic crisis could result in 95.8 million people -- or 48
percent of the country's total population of 202 million --
living below the poverty level by year's end.

ILO marks the poverty line in daily calorie intake at 2,200
calories. In daily earnings, those making less than US$1 per
person in a family in urban areas and 80 U.S. cents in rural
areas (at a conversion rate of Rp 2,300 to the dollar) are
considered poor.

The country's per capita income has shrunk from about $1,100
before the crisis hit the country in July last year to less than
$300. The media has been recently showing pictures of
malnourished Indonesian children -- images which had, until now,
hardly ever been aired.

Antara reported on Wednesday that more than 460,000 people in
10 regencies in South Kalimantan were facing severe food
shortages, mostly in the capital, Banjarmasin, and in Tapin
regency.

Doyo Pudjadi, an official of the provincial Ministry of Social
Services office, told the official news agency that the World
Food Program (WFP) was planning how best to address the problem.

"I have received information from Jakarta that the aid plan is
still being discussed," he said.

Central Java officials said last month that eight million
infants in the province alone would suffer from food deprivation.

"This is not an economic matter but also a problem of
ignorance, education and social cultural dilemmas," the minister
said.

Farid announced last month that the government would soon
launch a Rp 1.37 trillion (US$114 million) supplementary food
program for pregnant women and children under five in 140
regencies. "Each family will receive Rp 10,000 per year," he had
said. (prb)