Over a hundred people, including children, have been hospitalized after consuming free school lunches provided by the Indonesian government, which were allegedly contaminated.
The suspected cause of the mass hospitalizations was a meal consisting of turmeric rice, scrambled eggs, fried tempeh, a cucumber salad, and a box of milk, all prepared in a central kitchen and distributed to several schools across the town.
Wizdan Abimanyu, a ninth-grader in Sragen, told newsmen that he was awakened in the middle of the night by a sharp pain in his stomach.
Abimanyu said the pain was soon followed by diarrhea and a headache, which he believed were symptoms of food poisoning.
He later discovered that many of his schoolmates had experienced the same symptoms and were sharing their stories on social media, confirming his suspicions that the food may have been contaminated.
Following the incident which happened in Sragen, Central Java, the provision has been suspended, as food samples are being tested for contamination.
Leader of the town’s government, Sigit Pamungkas, disclosed on Friday that the government would cover up for the medical expenses incurred by those affected.
“We cannot draw any specific conclusions right away. But the main point is that it’s not just happening here. The free meals programme as a whole needs to be more stringent and more hygienic,” Pamungkas said.
The food welfare programme initiated for students, which costs an estimated $28bn (£21bn), delivers on a campaign promise by the president Prabowo Subiano, to combat stunting in the country.
According to reports, more than 1000 people across the country have fallen ill since the launch of the ambitious program in January, which is aimed at feeding the country’s 80 million school children. Prabowo had ordered $19bn in cuts to pay for the free meal scheme, along with other populist schemes.
As a result, several ministries had their budgets slashed by half and bucreaucrats alleged that they were forced to scrimp by limiting the use of air conditioners, lifts and even printers. Thousands took to the streets as a result, with one protest sign reading: “Children eat for free, parents are laid off”.
But on Friday, Prabowo defended the programme in his first State of the National Address, saying that it along with other social initiatives will help transform Indonesia into a country that is “free from poverty, free from hunger, free from suffering”.
