BPNI
NEWS DESK, HYDERABAD:
April 11, 2007: Proper nutritional
input is inevitably linked with
the growth and survival of the children.
There are certain stages when infants,
immediately after their births,
have to be adequately breastfeed.
If infants and young children are
not adequately breastfeed at their
early stage and during the initial
six months after birth, there are
changes of being affected by certain
diseases leading to deaths of the
infants and children. Still, there
is high percentage of infants below
12 months age die in India. According
to NFHS- 3, 57 children per 1000
live births die in India. In most
cases it has been found that children
die due to diarrhea, pneumonia and
other such related diseases. Inappropriate
infant feeding practice is primarily
responsible for such diseases that
shatter the children and their lives.
The reason ferreted out behind this
huge number of infant deaths in
India is the complete lack of awareness
within the community about the appropriate
feeding practices.
The extreme necessity
for a country like India is to device
a suitable strategy on Infant and
Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices
for the survival of children. With
that intention in mind Ministry
of Women and Child Development (MWCD),
GOI, in collaboration with UNICEF
and Breastfeeding Promotion Network
of India has organized one-day regional
workshop on Promoting Child Survival,
Nutrition and Health by Achieving
Optimal Infant and Young Child Feeding
Practices at Hyderabad on April
11, 2007.
Mr. Chaman Kumar,
Joint Secretary of MWCD, in his
welcome address asked all the delegates
to strengthen the ICDS and IYCF
programmes in India. While sharing
his views on the problems of malnutrition
referring to NFHS-3 data, he pointed
out that 46% of the children under
3 years of age reeling under malnutrition
in India. “We should talk
about integration of IYCF with ICDS
and RCH Programmes run by the government
of India and the prime objective
of these programes would be to improve
the nutritional status of children
in the states”, he emphasized.
Dr. Arun Gupta,
National Coordinator of BPNI, said
that maximum number of child deaths
occur within 1st year of life and
it is the most crucial period for
the children to be safeguarded by
initiating proper infant feeding
practices. The three major diseases
– neonatal sepsis, diarrhea
and pneumonia—that kill lakhs
of infants and young children of
India. However, the children affected
by diseases can be prevented by
proper breastfeeding practices.
And breastfeeding is recognized
as the single most important intervention
that could prevent child deaths
in India.
The Government of India and its
concerned ministries are aware of
the National Guidelines on IYCF,
Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding
Bottles and Infant Foods (Regulation
of Production, Supply and Distribution)
Act 1992, an Act passed by the Parliament
of India (ratified in the year 2003)
and the Global Strategy adopted
in 2002. What is required right
now is a firm adherence and commitment
to the national action to improve
child health in the country, he
said.
According to Dr.
Gupta, the early initiation of breastfeeding,
exclusive breastfeeding, appropriate
complementary feeding and continued
breastfeeding up to 2 years or thereafter
play most crucial roles in child
health and its survival. And the
time has come for India to take
more proactive steps and strategic
decisions to preventive care than
curative care. This will help the
country to fulfill all the commitments
and goals as mentioned in national
action plans and development goals
that deal with the health issues
of the children.
Smt. Shashi Prabha
Gupta, Technical Advisor of Food
Nutrition Board, GOI, said that
nutrition is the most important
and crucial part of the physical
and cognitive development of the
infants and young children. Proper
nutritional inputs at early stage
of the children help to maintain
a good health at later stage of
life. World Health Assembly (WHA)
resolutions and the guidelines of
Ministry of Women and Child Development
(MWCD) have clearly stated about
appropriate infant and young child
feeding, the obligation and the
shared responsibilities of different
organizations in implementation
of the guidelines.
Highlighting the
nutrition scenario of the country,
Smt. Gupta further stated that scaling
up early initiation of breastfeeding
up to 80%, exclusive breastfeeding
for first 6 months to 90% and appropriate
complementary feeding for the 2
years to 90% are the major uphill
challenges before the government.
And to achieve these goals more
efforts have to be put in place.
She, however, recommended
for integration of nutrition programme
with health programme in the 11th
Plan. Further suggesting for implementation
of this integrated nutrition programme
she said that scaling up networking
with the different organizations
including medical and home science
colleges and NGOs at the state level
and appropriately integrating the
component of IYCF with government
programmes, teaching institutions
and hospitals would be the appropriate
mechanism to address the needs of
the children and it should be the
one objective of the workshop.
According to Smt
Asha Murty, Special Chief Secretary,
Government of AP, Dept. of Labor,
Employment Training and Factories
and also the In-charge of Women
Development, Child Welfare and Disabled
Welfare, there is a complete lack
of awareness about the importance
of breastfeeding within illiterate
masses and even among educated people.
Earlier she was under high impression
that all mothers, especially in
rural India, used to breastfeed
their babies. But it was not the
case when she learnt about the findings
of the NFHS-3. What really shocked
her is the low rate of early initiation
of breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding
in India. “ I was not aware
of the huge benefits of colostrum,”
she articulated. She also pointed
out that urgent steps should be
taken to undertake appropriate counseling
at all levels. Smt Murty inaugurated
the workshop as its chief guest.
Smt. Y Y Anuradha,
Director, Women and Child Development
(WCD), Govt. of AP, gave her special
thanks to all prominent speakers
for their invaluable contribution
and inputs on infant and young child
health and their nutritional aspects
that brought a new live to the workshop.
In the workshop,
two technical sessions were held.
Mr. N S Palanippan, Secretary, Social
Welfare Govt of Tamil Nadu chaired
the Technical Session-1 of the workshop.
In the session, Dr. J P Dadhich
of BPNI presented the Uttarakhand
Project on IYCF followed by another
presentation on recent developments
in the areas of IYCF by Smt. Laxmi
Bhavani, UNICEF, Hyderabad.
In the Technical
Session- II under the chairpersonship
of Ms. Rajini Sreekumar, Principal
Secretary DWCD, Government of Karnataka,
the members of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,
Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry
states have shared current level
IYCF practices and the implementation
of national IYCF guidelines in their
respective states. In the final
session, the states also have presented
recommendations and shared their
views on state specific plan of
action.
A total of 124
participants comprising of government
secretaries, bureaucrats, doctors,
nutritionists, nurses, judicial
and legal service representatives,
officers of the Women and Child
Development, Integrated Child Development
Schemes and NGOs from Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and
Pondicherry attended in the workshop.
(By:
Subrata Dutta & Priyanka Roy)
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