Malnutrition stalks children in Cirebon

Malnutrition stalks children in Cirebon

Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post/Indramayu

Food shortages and malnutrition are not problems confined to
barren areas, but also to major rice-producing areas such as
Cirebon and Indramayu.

In Cirebon, at least 3,700 of the 211,138
children under the age of five are undernourished, while in
Indramayu, hundreds of people living in Totoran in Sindang
district here have to make do with only aking (dried leftover
rice) to eat. This is not because of food shortages in the area,
but because they can no longer afford to buy rice.

Officials have said that in Cirebon most cases of malnutrition
are found in poor pockets, such as Kapetakan and Kaliwedi
districts.

Head of the Cirebon regental health office Retina Sedjati said
poverty and parents' lack of understanding about nutrition were
to blame.

"The two factors are the major causes of malnutrition among
children below five years of age," said Retina.

She said, however, malnutrition cases in Cirebon had declined
over the past two years. There were 5,000 malnourished children
in 2003, while, a year later, the figure dropped to 4,005. "The
number declined further to 3,700 children this year," Retina
said.

The Cirebon regental administration has allocated Rp 1 billion
for the provision of food supplements to children in need and to
carry out so-termed "healthy living" campaigns.

Meanwhile, in Indramayu, around 100 poor residents in Totoran
village have been eating aking for the past two weeks, saying
they can longer afford to buy rice.
The price of rice in Indramayu ranges from Rp 3,400 (34 U.S.
cents) to Rp 3,500 per kilogram now, while most residents in the
area work as menial laborers earning Rp 10,000 per day at most.
"We certainly cannot buy rice with such low pay, so we have to
make do with aking, which is cheaper," said a resident, Akub, who
has five sons.

Akub said that aking, which cost around Rp 800 to Rp 1,000 per
kg, is usually mixed with a pinch of salt and eaten with dried
fish and urap (boiled cassava leaves mixed with a dressing of
grated coconut).

Indramayu regency, which encompasses 1,971.15 sq km, has 28
districts and a population of 2.3 million. It is said to have the
largest area of rice farms in West Java at 109,000 hectares.
Meanwhile, Cirebon regency, which encompasses 989.7 sq km, has a
population of two million people, 545,847 of whom work in the
agricultural sector. Its total rice plantation area reaches
50,000 hectares.