More than 1,000 children in the Indonesian provinces West Java poisoned food from school lunches this week. The Governor Dedi Mulyadi confirmed this on Thursday. Free lunches are part of President Prabow Subiant’s initiative, which they launched at the beginning of the year. In the meantime, NGOs for health concerns are calling for it to stop, TASR reports.
- The incident threatened the President’s initiative with free school lunch.
- The problem is spread by insufficient hygiene conditions and the poor organization of kitchens.
- The Governor announced the medical emergency and suspension of problematic operations.
- Organizations call on the review of the extended program.
In recent days, according to the Governor, they have reported food poisoning in four parts of West Java. On Monday, more than 470 pupils in the western part of the Bandung provincial metropolis were ill, on Wednesday there were other three outbreaks in this area and at least 580 children poisoned food. In the west of Bandung, according to Mulyadi, small hospitals were crowded with sick students.
Last week, about 800 students were poisoned in West Java and Middle Sulawesi provinces after eating free lunch.
Programs do not have sufficient supervision
Recent cases, according to Reuters, have raised questions about standards and supervision of a program that has more than 20 million recipients after a rapid expansion. The ambition is to increase their number by the end of this year to 83 million. The government plans to double the program budget to approximately $ 10 billion next year.
“We have to assess those who manage the program … And the most important thing is how to deal with the trauma of students after eating food,” said the governor.
The President’s office did not immediately comment on the request for a statement. The director of the National Agency for BGN, which is responsible for the management of the program, has already informed about the suspension of the operation of the kitchens where they prepared problematic meals.
His problems had thousands of children
Network for Education Watch reports that at least 6452 children have been poisoned throughout Indonesia since the launch of the program in January. There may be more of them, the organization’s data does not yet count on new cases from this week.
Governor Mulyadi said that the kitchens had the task of feeding too many students and were placed far from schools, which forced them to start cooking very early, sometimes at night. They put the food on the trays when it was still warm, then closed them, and therefore went wrong, he said. He added that the authorities have already declared a medical emergency.
The kitchen leader, which provided a part of the free meals, said that it was held in its operation when the diet was held “standard procedure”.
