JAKARTA: Indonesia’s new government launched an ambitious $4.3 billion free meal program on Monday to fight malnutrition and stunting, a key election promise of President Prabowo Subianto.

The Free Nutritious Meal Program, a centerpiece of Prabowo’s election campaign that catapulted him to power last year, plans to reach more than 82 million students and pregnant mothers across Indonesia in five years.

It is part of a longer-term strategy to develop human resources to achieve a “Golden Indonesia” generation by 2045 and to significantly reduce the problem of stunting that currently afflicts around 21.5 percent of children younger than 5 years old in the country.

“This is a historic moment for Indonesia. For the first time, Indonesia is conducting a nationwide nutrition program for toddlers, students, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers,” Hariqo Wibawa Satria, head of the presidential communications office, said late on Sunday.

The first leg of the program was rolled out on Monday with 190 kitchens involved in preparing the first meals for about 570,000 school children in more than 20 provinces.

With a budget of 71 trillion rupiah ($4.3 billion) for 2025, the government is hoping to reach more than 19 million people by the end of the year.

“The number will gradually increase so that the program will reach its 82 million target by 2029,” Satria said.

Prabowo said the program, which was previously estimated to cost $28 billion over five years, is strategic to counter child malnutrition and spur economic growth.

Malnutrition is a prevalent issue in Indonesia, where one in 12 children younger than 5 suffer from wasting, while one in five are stunted, according to estimates from UNICEF.

Tan Shot Yen, a Jakarta-based nutritionist and doctor, said the multi-billion program was unlikely to resolve Indonesia’s stunting and malnutrition problem.

“Stunting is a multidimensional issue, and it mostly has to do with the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, between the time they are in the womb until they are 2 years old. So if there’s a program distributing food to prevent stunting among school children, that is a (political) campaign,” she told Arab News.

In the archipelago nation of around 280 million people, around 70 percent of stunting cases can be traced back to poor parenting, she said, where many disregard the importance of nutrition during pregnancy and in young children.

“The problem is that many people do not understand the basics of nutrition,” Tan said, adding that resolving malnutrition in Indonesia was “an extremely complicated” matter.

“Eating right once a day is not going to change someone’s fate and improve his nutrition for the better.”