Indonesia free meal plan stunted by problems

Prabowo’s flagship policy beset by delays, protests and poisonings, writes Dessy Sagita

- Dessy Sagita

When an Indonesian mother dropped off her daughter at school in May, she did not expect her to become violently sick after eating lunch from the government's new billion-dollar free meal programme.

"My daughter had a stomach ache, diarrhoea, and a headache," the woman told AFP on condition of anonymity in the Javan city of Bandung. "She also couldn't stop vomiting until three in the morning."

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto touted the populist scheme as a solution to the high rates of stunted growth among children, as he carved his way to a landslide election victory last year.

But its rollout since January has stumbled from crisis to crisis, including accusations of nepotism, funding delays, protests and a spate of food poisonings.

It was slated to reach as many as 17.5 million children this year and cost $4.3 billion (140.5 billion baht). But so far it has only served five million students nationwide from January to mid-June, according to the finance ministry.

The poisoning issues were not isolated to that girl’s school — five others reported similar incidents. But Mr Prabowo has lauded the number of illnesses as a positive.