JAKARTA – The Indonesian Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) praised the handling of stunting in the city of Surabaya, East Java.
The praise comes for the success of Surabaya in efforts to reduce the prevalence of stunting by simultaneously taking a specific and sensitive approach.
This was stated by the Deputy Minister of Health (Wamenkes) Dante S Harbuwono in the Merdeka Barat Forum (FMB) entitled “Important Steps to Reduce Stunting” which was held online in Jakarta, Monday (26/6).
“It’s amazing that Surabaya can reduce stunting so much. That’s because a specific approach and a sensitive approach are taken together,” said Dante S Harbuwono.
According to him, handling stunting is not just about feeding the children. It must be done through a specific and sensitive approach.
The specific approach, he said, for example, is providing additional food to children to prevent them from getting sick.
“Meanwhile, the sensitive approach relates to factors in the local environment. For example, poverty, good sanitation, cultural issues in the society and so on,” he added.
Dante also said that efforts to deal with stunting do not only require commitment from the central government exclusively, but also the role and commitment of local governments–as has been done by Mayor of Surabaya Eri Cahyadi.
“And this requires cooperation from ministries/agencies,” he continued.
In the same place, Mayor of Surabaya Eri Cahyadi explained a number of stunting management strategies that have been done in his city–City of Heroes.
One of them is mapping the data on how many babies are born each day. From this data, the number of babies who were born normal and stunted was separated per region.
“We have to know how many babies are born every day. They are born in clinics, public health centers (puskesmas), and hospitals. These facilities make a report in the Ministry of Health application, letting me know how many babies are born in Surabaya–and how many of them are born with stunting,” Eri explained.
According to him, the data of stunting toddlers in Surabaya can also be known per region down to RT/RW level.
Including how many poor and unemployed people in the region.
In an effort to prevent or treat stunting, the Surabaya City Government applies a mutual cooperation pattern.
“After learning the data, we separate it. We choose a person in charge and we use a mutual cooperation pattern. So, in Surabaya, there are Surabaya Great Cadres (KSH), around 45,000 people, and they are the ones who assist the community,” he said.
In addition, Eri also stated that the prevention and treatment of stunting in Surabaya is not only done when someone is born.
Stunting prevention begins when girls have had their menstrual cycle.
“We already have an application to monitor them (the girls), we provide iron intake in schools. If she doesn’t drink it today, we will find it out. It means she doesn’t go to school, so we send it to her house until she becomes a potential bride (catin),” he explained.
Before the catins get married, the Surabaya City Government also requires them to attend the Catin Classes program.
In this program, Catins will be given knowledge, understanding and skills about domestic life.
The knowledge provided covers all aspects, especially in terms of health.
“We accompany her until she becomes a good bride-to-be. After she gets married, we accompany her again until she becomes pregnant and gives birth, so that (stunting) will drop drastically,” he said.
Data on the prevalence of stunting in Surabaya noted that stunting in this city by the end of 2022 had fallen to 4.8 percent from the previous which reached 28.9 percent in 2021.
At the end of 2022, there were 923 stunting cases in Surabaya. It decreased to 712 by the end of May 2023.
According to Eri, Surabaya’s success in drastically reducing stunting cases is not due to the greatness of its mayor.
This can happen because the citizens of Surabaya can change their mindset in loving their city.
“Thank God today (stunting) has fallen to 600. Since our target is to drop to zero, but not for those with congenital diseases such as hydrocephalus which takes a long time,” he said.
He also added that not all of the handling of stunting in Surabaya uses the Surabaya Regional Budget (APBD).
It is instead carried out in pentahelix, with mutual cooperation involving all stakeholders, even the universities.
“What I’m very proud of is that we (the Surabaya City Government) don’t use all of the APBD. Since there are stunting foster parents in our city, community involvement is the key to handling stunting in Surabaya,” he added.
BKKBN Deputy for Advocacy, Mobilization and Information (ADPIN) Sukaryo Teguh Santosa explained that the trend of stunting cases nationally fell flat by around 2 percent per year from 2007–2022.
However, the stunting data trend is also fluctuating.
“It is decreasing slowly. But starting in 2016, the decline in stunting has been quite good. In fact, it also decreased during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Sukaryo.
He said, nationally, the prevalence of stunting in Indonesia fell by 2.8 percent in the 2021-2022 period.
Even though it has not yet reached the target of 14 percent by the end of 2024, according to him, this reduction in stunting is a good first step.
“Well, of course we have homework, because to reduce (stunting) at the end of 2024 (to) 14 percent, this is not an easy job, so we need to mitigate the main risk factors,” he concluded.
