Women's Alliance Marches with Kitchenware, Demands End to Free Nutritious Meals Programme

A group of women dressed in pink gathered on the pavement opposite the Dukuh Atas Skateboard Park in Central Jakarta on Thursday morning, 18 June 2026. They were members of the Indonesian Women’s Alliance preparing to stage a demonstration in front of the State Palace. The crowd, comprising women’s organisations and civil society groups, uniformly wore pink attire and house dresses. Some carried kitchen utensils, banners, posters, and paraphernalia bearing demands related to staple food prices, employment, and the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) programme. Fanda, one of the protesters, said there was no special preparation for joining the action. Preparations were more personal, mainly arranging time off as the protest took place on a working day. ‘Initially I was working. I deliberately took leave because I felt I had to join the struggle on the streets,’ Fanda said on Thursday. Fanda said her motivation for joining the protest was that the issues raised were shared problems. She believes the public is feeling the impact of rising staple food prices. ‘Even taking an online motorcycle taxi, you feel the impact. The drivers are pitiful, and so are we. This is an issue close to our daily lives,’ Fanda said. Therefore, Fanda felt the need to voice these concerns. ‘This is what motivated me to join the fight. I feel the impact myself. If other people feel represented, that is good,’ she said. The action held by the Indonesian Women’s Alliance brought several demands to the government, including lowering staple food prices, creating decent jobs, and evaluating the Free Nutritious Meals programme. At the time, the crowd was moving towards the front of the State Palace. Indonesian Women’s Alliance representative Mutiara Ika Pratiwi explained that the demonstration, which would be mostly attended by women from working-class backgrounds, was an accumulation of frustration among women affected by various government policies that do not side with the people, including the fuel price hike and the MBG project. According to Mutiara, these two policies have caused a domino effect that has impoverished the public. The fuel price increase has caused staple food prices to soar. This has then indirectly strangled the lives of women, especially labourers working for low wages and long hours. Not only that, the policy is considered to have pressured the middle class, many of whom are employers of domestic workers. ‘That has caused many of us women working as domestic workers to be laid off because their burden of dependents has also increased, so they can no longer afford to employ domestic workers,’ Mutiara said.