VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Every year, 25 January is celebrated as National Nutrition Day in Indonesia. The purpose of commemorating National Nutrition Day is to increase public awareness of the importance of fulfilling balanced nutrition for Indonesian people. This commemoration also has the goal of creating sustainable food production for the community, from children to pregnant women. National Nutrition Day focuses on three main burdens, namely stunting, malnutrition and excess nutrition. This year's theme is Animal Protein to Prevent Stunting.

Suppressing stunting or impaired growth and development of children due to chronic malnutrition and recurrent infections, which are characterized by below standard length or height, has become one of the focuses of President Joko Widodo's administration. Quoting the website, setkab.go.id, the President asked regional heads to reduce the stunting rate in their respective regions. This is important, considering that Indonesia will experience a peak in the demographic bonus in 2030-2035. Demographic bonus is a situation where there is an increase in the population of a country at productive age, which ranges from 16 to 65 years. This increase was followed by a decrease in birth and death rates. Therefore, the development of human resources must continue to be optimized. The President targets the prevalence of stunting to be reduced to below 14 percent by 2024.

Reducing the stunting prevalence rate is indeed one of the Indonesian Government's National Medium-Term Development Plans 2019-2024. But to make it happen, of course, the involvement of all Indonesian people is needed.

Every family must be very concerned about the growth of their children. Fulfilment of nutrition can be met from what is consumed. Malnutrition that occurs since the baby is in the womb and in the early days after the baby is born has a major effect on growth. Therefore, preparing expectant mothers to be adequately nourished during pregnancy is very important. One of them is the understanding of the importance of animal protein.

Data from the Ministry of Agriculture indeed shows that consumption of animal protein in Indonesia is still low compared to other countries. If parents, especially mothers, understand the importance of animal protein, and apply it in their daily diet from 100 days before pregnancy, during pregnancy and after the delivery, they will certainly be able to prevent stunting in their children. If every mother and mother-to-be realizes the importance of animal protein, the target of reducing the prevalence of stunting below 14 percent by 2024 will certainly be achieved.