TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said children who lost their parents due to Covid-19 potentially see a decrease in their quality of life, health, and education. This will also affect their growth and development.

“Children aged 0 to 2 years old have a higher vulnerability because they have the potential to experience stunting,” said Sri in her opening speech read by the Finance Ministry’s Director General of Fiscal Balance Astera Primanto Bhakti in a virtual national meeting on Monday, August 23.

The pandemic will also worsen the nutritional problems in children. This will be a new challenge to reduce the stunting prevalence rate in Indonesia with a target of 14 percent by 2024.

She opined that the pandemic had hampered stunting prevention for several reasons, starting from the obstruction of several health services due to social restrictions, such as integrated health services posts (Posyandu), maternal classes for pregnant women, and access of the poor people to food.

Since 2019, Sri mentioned the prevalence rate of stunting in Indonesia has dropped substantially to 27.2 percent. The position was lower than that of 2013 at 37.2 percent.

In March 2021, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) recorded the poverty rate fell to 10.14 percent, down from September 2020. However, Sri Mulyani said the high surge in Covid-19 cases in July 2021 must still be watched out for. “This is a warning because poverty is an important factor that causes stunting,” she said.

Read: Sri Mulyani Predicts Covid-19 Pandemic to Become Endemic in 2022

FAJAR PEBRIANTO