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More than 2,000 students and teachers have fallen ill this week in separate outbreaks of food poisoning linked to Indonesia’s free school meals programme.
The outbreaks span at least three of the country’s major islands.
The latest cases were reported on Thursday in Tana Toraja, in the South Sulawesi province, where some 170 students and teachers fell ill after eating the meals, the local government head Zadrak Tombeg told Reuters.
This came after more than 1,700 cases were reported earlier in the week from the provinces of Central Java, East Java and West Sumatra. Before that, 256 students had fallen sick in another East Java region after eating their school meals, according to CNN Indonesia.
On Friday, the National Commission on Human Rights, known as Komnas HAM, called on police to investigate the latest outbreaks.
“Rights to food, especially safe-to-consume food, are human rights,” it said in a statement, adding that without a rigorous sanitation standard, “the nutrition intervention the state is doing will lose its moral legitimacy”.
The commission also urged the National Nutrition Agency, which runs the programme, to suspend the kitchens allegedly responsible.
The free meals programme was launched by president Prabowo Subianto last year as part of a drive to eradicate malnutrition among schoolchildren. It has repeatedly been hit by food safety incidents, however, and the call by Komnas HAM adds pressure on the government over its handling of the scheme.
“My hope as a parent is for the central or regional government to cancel the free meal programme,” Ester Patandung, whose child was among those hospitalised in Tana Toraja, told Reuters.
Meals are prepared for elementary and middle school students in Jakarta (AFP/Getty)
The National Nutrition Agency had been due to hold a press conference on Friday but delayed it without giving a reason or a new date, and didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The agency’s head, Sudaryono, said on Thursday the poisoning cases would be handled seriously.
Charles Honoris, a member of Indonesia’s parliament, said on Wednesday that 50,000 people had been affected by food poisoning linked to the programme as of 1 September, citing health department data. Some earlier cases have been blamed on improper food storage and the late delivery of cooked meals.
Public support for the scheme has fallen sharply. Only a third of Indonesians surveyed in July said they were satisfied with the programme, according to pollster Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting, with many citing the poisoning cases as their reason for disapproval.
