JAKARTA: Indonesia will make cuts to its free school meals programme from Tuesday (Mar 31) as it seeks to set aside billions of dollars to counteract budget pressures brought on by the Middle East war and soaring oil prices.
The programme, which feeds an estimated 60 million children and pregnant and breastfeeding women at a cost of nearly a-tenth of the annual budget, is President Prabowo Subianto’s signature project.
Here’s what we know:
WHAT IS BEING CUT?
At a Cabinet meeting over the weekend, ministers and Prabowo decided to trim the programme from six days per week to five in primary and secondary schools starting Tuesday.
In regions with high malnutrition rates, meals will remain available on Saturdays, when many Indonesian schools are open in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy.
The move will save “around 40 trillion rupiah (US$2.3 billion),” Nanik Sudaryati Deyang, deputy head of the government’s National Nutrition Agency, told AFP on Sunday.
The cut may be reviewed if conditions change.
Launched in January 2025, the initiative was touted by the government as a way to tackle a malnutrition and stunting crisis in the country of 284 million people.
The program has a target of ultimately feeding 83 million people, but it has come under the spotlight after thousands of recipients contracted food poisoning.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesia-free-meals-programme-budget-cut-trim-prabowo-6027311
