Parents of Indonesian children sickened by free school meals file police complaint

JAKARTA — A police complaint has been filed by 60 parents of children who fell ill after consuming free meals funded by the Indonesian government, a mother representing the complainants said on Friday (Sept 11), the first legal challenge to President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship programme.The call to press criminal charges against Indonesia’s National Nutrition Agency is the latest blow to a scheme already hit by allegations of mismanagement, corruption, and over 50,000 cases of food poisoning.The complaint, filed on Aug 31 but shared with the media on Thursday, also reflects growing doubts about the financial and logistical viability of providing free meals to 83 million school children and pregnant mothers across the archipelago.At least 300 students at several high schools in the region of Karo in North Sumatra fell sick, with some hospitalised, after consuming the free meals in mid-August, Fitri Sijabat, the mother who made the complaint, told Reuters.The complaint is directed at the agency that oversees the programme as well as the kitchen that prepared the meals and schools which distribute the meals, said Aslia Sijabat, the parents’ lawyer.