Minister blames local govts for malnutrition

Minister blames local govts for malnutrition

Rendi A. Witular and ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Surabaya

Regional autonomy is to blame for the recent high number of cases
of malnutrition in some provinces, as local governments have
failed to extend enough state funds to the poor, a minister said.

Minister of Health Siti Fadillah Supari said much of the state
funds did not reach people living below the poverty line but the
central government could no longer supervise and direct the fund
allocation since the inception of regional autonomy in 2001.

"The malnutrition cases were partly triggered by provincial
administrations which refused to cooperate with the central
government in the management of the funds," Siti said after a
meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla here on Monday.

Also present were Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare
Alwi Shihab and West Nusa Tenggara Governor Lalu Serinata.

Under the autonomy law, local administrations are given
freedom in the use of funds to be spent on health, education and
other social affairs.

"The communication lines between the central and regional
administrations have been cut off by the autonomy law. Frankly
speaking, the Ministry of Health no longer has access to the
situation in the regions," said Siti.

Malnutrition in West Nusa Tenggara made the headlines recently
after the local administration revealed that eight children aged
under five years old had died of marasmus, or advanced
malnutrition. The province, which is a horticultural farming
area, is in the country's rice belt and is a major rice producer.

Siti said that in the first six months of this year some 655
children under five were suffering from severe malnutrition.
However, the figure was lower compared to 1,500 affected in the
same period last year.

She insisted that malnutrition was commonplace in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, Alwi said the government managed only to allocate
Rp 50,000 (US$5.26) per day for each of around 250,000 integrated
service posts across the country to provide health care for poor
children.

"We will intensify the operation of the posts after several
years of letting their activities lapse. I heard from Governor
Lalu that malnutrition was the result of the absence of such a
facility," said Alwi.

The government, he added, would cooperate with the World Food
Program and the Indonesian Red Cross to dispatch free food
supplements, such as biscuits, vitamins and milk, for thousands
of children of poor families in West Nusa Tenggara.

To improve their economic condition, the government will
provide seeds for farmers there.

The poor families whose children are suffering from
malnutrition in the province do not own land and are working for
farmers.

In Surabaya, the head of a farmers organization in East Nusa
Tenggara, Alex Abanat, said malnutrition had affected the
province and could develop to severe malnutrition because local
people could no longer afford to buy rice.

Alex said that with its distribution disrupted, rice was sold
at Rp 3,000 per kilogram in many places, triple the price of
cheap rice offered by the government for the poor.

"People have turned to rice for a long time, but now they
cannot buy it at an affordable price because the commodity can
hardly be found," he said on the sidelines of a national farmers
and fishermen's forum in Surabaya.

The provincial government has extended loans to poor families
to run small businesses, but Alex said most of the people had
spent it on basic commodities.

"Now they have run out of money to buy rice, not to mention
other needs," he said.

Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriantono, who opened the
forum, said the government had provided Rp 15 billion to help
farmers obtain water for their crops.