Indonesia plans to spend Rp335 trillion on the Free Nutritious Meals program, or MBG, in 2026. Of that amount, Rp223.6 trillion will come from the education budget—around 29 percent of its total allocation. The scale of this spending is striking, particularly for a program that continues to draw criticism over poor food quality, mass food poisoning, and weak oversight.
The problem is not that children do not need nutritious food. They do. The question is whether a costly, centralized program plagued by recurring problems is the best way to provide it—and why this particular vision of care has attracted such enormous political and financial commitment while other urgent needs remain largely invisible.
Childcare is one of them. Across Indonesia, working parents struggle to find daycare that is safe, affordable, and compatible with their working hours. Yet the government continues to treat childcare as a private family matter, leaving parents—and overwhelmingly women—to find their own solutions.
If the state can mobilize hundreds of trillions of rupiah to provide meals through MBG, why can it not make a comparable commitment to public childcare? Instead of expanding a troubled flagship program at almost any cost, Indonesia should consider another kind of investment: Municipal Daycare Grants, or MDG.
Read also: Nyawa Anak Kami Tak Semurah Janji Program MBG
Indonesia’s childcare crisis has a gender
For many Indonesian women, having a baby still brings a familiar dilemma: continue working and find someone to care for the child, or resign and become the primary caregiver. Fathers rarely face the same pressure because women are still expected to put their families before their careers.
Mothers who keep working usually have two options. The first is to seek help from other women in the family: grandmothers, aunts, or older sisters. Fathers may step in, but unpaid childcare still falls disproportionately on women.
The second is to hire a caregiver or use a daycare center. Finding a competent nanny, however, is not easy. There is also an uncomfortable contradiction in asking one woman to leave her own children—often for inadequate pay—so another woman can remain in the workforce.
Daycare is not much easier. According to Kompas, Indonesia has, on average, only one childcare facility for every 8,719 children aged four and under. Monthly daycare fees average around Rp2.7 million, while the average wage is approximately Rp3.5 million. Even for a two-income household, that is a substantial expense.
Daycare therefore remains largely accessible to middle- and upper-income families. Households living on regional minimum wages have far fewer choices. Mothers may leave their jobs, but returning to work later presents another hurdle. Employers can treat gaps in their CVs as a lack of professionalism rather than evidence of the care work that kept their families going.
Indonesia encourages people to marry and have children but offers parents remarkably little support once those children arrive. The mental, financial, and physical cost is pushed back onto families—and mostly onto women.
This labour is often invisible because childcare and domestic work are still treated as women’s natural responsibility. Feminist scholars describe the unpaid work that sustains households and the workforce as “social reproduction.” Put simply, someone must cook, clean, care, and raise the next generation so everyone else can go to work. That “someone” is still usually a woman.
Read also: Kami Minta Tiga Ibu Hitung Harga Seporsi Ompreng MBG, Benarkah Capai Rp15 Ribu?
A public alternative: municipal daycare grants
Daycare matters not only because parents need somewhere safe for their children. Publicly supported daycare would also recognise childcare as essential work rather than a private obligation that women are expected to perform for free.
Some local governments have taken initial steps. Jakarta, for example, operates 23 government-run daycare centers. However, each accommodates only 20 children, prioritises those aged two to six, and follows fixed registration periods. This model remains too limited for many working parents, particularly those in informal employment or jobs with irregular hours.
Municipal Daycare Grants could offer an alternative. Under this proposal, the national government would provide targeted funding, while local governments and communities would design services around local working patterns and needs.
Jakarta and Surabaya, for example, might need daycare centers operating from morning until evening. Tourism-dependent regions in Bali may require services that accommodate shift work. Funding should therefore be based on need rather than distributed uniformly.
Despite local flexibility, every MDG-funded center should follow four basic principles. First, it must be accessible, with facilities distributed across subdistricts rather than concentrated in government offices or city centers. Second, it must be free or heavily subsidized. Public daycare cannot reduce inequality if only middle- and upper-income families can afford it.
Third, it must be flexible. Parents in domestic work, retail, hospitality, transportation, and other informal or shift-based jobs cannot always follow school-style registration periods and operating hours.
Finally, it must guarantee quality and safety. Caregivers need proper training, fair wages, manageable child-to-staff ratios, decent working conditions, and clear safeguarding standards. Formalizing childcare should not create another workforce of underpaid women.
MDG could also create decent local employment. Community members interested in childcare could receive professional training and fair wages, while local businesses could provide food and other services. This would turn the idea that “it takes a village to raise a child” into paid, skilled, and accountable work—not another excuse to depend on women’s unpaid labour.
Having a child should not force a woman to choose between motherhood and a career. Nor should safe childcare depend on whether a family can pay millions of rupiah each month.
“It takes a village” should be more than a proverb that romanticises women’s sacrifices. It should guide public policy. Indonesia is willing to spend trillions on MBG. It is time to ask why families are still left to solve childcare alone.
