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)