Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI)

South Asia Breastfeeding Partners Forum - 3 at Kabul

BPNI INTERNATIONAL NETWORK, KABUL: Dr Arun Gupta, National Coordinator, BPNI, Dr MMA Faridi, Mrs. Radha Holla and Mr Rahul Dev represented BPNI at South Asia Breastfeeding Partners Forum-3 held at Kabul, Afghanistan, from 18th to 23rd Nov 2006. Dr. Sayed M. Amin Fatimi, Aghanistan's Minister of Public Health

released the State of the World's Breastfeeding: South Asia Report Card, in Kabul on 20th November, 2006 at the inauguration of the South Asia Breastfeeding Forum -3, an international gathering of health professionals and policy makers. The Report Card assesses and rates the practices, policy and programmes related to Infant and Young Child Feeding in eight countries of the region, and ranks them on their performance in promoting IYCF. The countries are Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Youth leaders promoting breastfeeding

BPNI INTERNATIONAL NETWORK, PENANG: Youth leaders from different countries of the world had participated in a five-day workshop held at Penang, Malaysia from 9-10 October 2006 organized by WABA. Subrata Dutta from BPNI had participated in this workshop. The main objective of WABA Youth Initiative, an international programme to initiate the movement in various countries is to get youths interested in breastfeeding and to develop and sustain young advocates to promote and protect breastfeeding through the perspectives of human rights, reproductive health and gender equality.

Maldives promotes breastfeeding

BPNI INTERNATIONAL NETWORK, MALDIVES: Dr Arun Gupta was invited for an expert consultation on protecting, promoting and supporting optimal breastfeeding and infant and young child feeding in Maldives from 8th to 17th Aug 06. The aim of the consultation was to bring a regulation for protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding.

Conference on breastfeeding and complementary feeding in Bangladesh
BPNI INTERNATIONAL NETWORK, DHAKA: More than five hundred delegates from different countries and organizations participated in a national conference on breastfeeding and complementary feeding organized by Bangladesh Breastfeeding Foundation (BBF) in Dhaka on 19-20 August 2006. Government of Bangladesh, UNICEF, WHO, Plan International, Save the Children and many other national and international organizations were part of this conference. Dr Arun Gupta was invited in this conference to address on IYCF strategy, challenges and opportunities, state of the code in south Asia and also to participate in a BBF staff development session.

Conference on global peace

BPNI INTERNATIONAL NETWORK, CANADA: Dr. Arun Gupta participated in an international conference at Canada on Alliance for Civilizations for Global PeaceHuman Security, Regional Conflict and Global Governance as one of the members of the research group. Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research, Hawaii in collaboration with Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, organized this conference in Canada on June 25-27, 2006. On July 29, the members led by Dr. Gupta met the CIDA officials Mr. Ken Porter and Ms Monica for implementing the Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding.

National

Luminaries in right to food campaign
BPNI, NEW DELHI: BPNI members attended a public gathering on 'Bal Vikas Samvad' (A wake-up call for 'children under six') organized under the auspices of Right to Food Campaign at Constitution Club Lawns, New Delhi on 19th Nov 2006. Dr Arun Gupta, Dr Sunita Katyayan, Radha Holla and Subrata Dutta from BPNI attended this progarmme. Groups like Peoples Health Assembly, Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, Gram Swasthya Abhiyan, CARE, and groups of ICDS functionaries from different parts of India attended the programme. There were also luminaries like Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, actress Shabana Azmi, deputy chairman of the planning commission Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, chairman of the UGC and as well as many activists representing different NGOs working in various parts of the country.

Training programmes on IYCF counseling in four regional centers of NIPCCD
BPNI, NEW DELHI: BPNI in collaboration with NIPCCD organized skill-training programmes on IYCF for the trainers of different branches of NIPCCD, anganwadi training centres and NGOs. Four such training courses were organized at NIPCCD's regional centres in Bangalore,BPNI, NEW DELHI: BPNI in collaboration with NIPCCD organized skill-training programmes on IYCF for the trainers of different branches of NIPCCD, anganwadi training centres and NGOs. Four such training courses were organized at NIPCCD's regional centres in Bangalore,Guwahati, Indore and Lucknow.
First training was conducted at the regional centre, Guwahati from 30th Oct to 4th Nov 2006. Participants of various middle level training centres, anganwadi training centres and ICDS functionaries of Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya and West Bengal attended the course under BPNI resource persons Dr K. Ratan Kumar Singh (Imphal) Dr (Ms.) Meenakshi Regon (Guwahati), Mr Sitanshu Shekhar Senapati (NIPCCD) and Dr Sunita Katyayan as its course director supervised the whole training programme.
The second training was conducted at southern regional centre, Bangalore from 30th Oct to 4th Nov 2006. The participants from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu attended the course. Dr Asha Benakappa, Dr HB Mallikarjun, and Dr K Kesavulu were the BPNI trainers and the course facilitator was Dr Naveeda Khatoon from NIPCCD, Bangalore.
The third training was conducted at the regional centre, Lucknow from 18th Dec to 23rd Dec 2006. Dr BB Gupta from Gorakhpur was its course director, Dr Usha Vats from Kanpur and Dr Azra Ahmed from Aligarh were the resource persons of BPNI.
Fourth training was conducted at the Regional Centre, Indore from 18th Dec to 23rd Dec 2006. The participants attended the course were from the states of Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. BPNI trainer Dr Anurag Singh from Jodhpur was its course director, Dr Ajay Kumar Saraf from Jabalpur, Mrs. Anjali Sarwate from Indore and Dr Nisha Jain from Bhopal were the BPNI's resource persons.

Training for ICDS officers and supervisors in Uttarakhand
BPNI, NEW DELHI: BPNI in collaboration with Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Development of Uttarakhand government organized 4 training workshops at Haridwar. A total of 135 supervisors and officers of ICDS department working in various districts as middle level trainers to train frontline workers of Uttarakhand were trained inthe workshops.
Dr. Ramneek Sharma from Chandigarh and Dr. Kundan Mittal from Rohtak conducted the first batch of the training, started from 11th Dec and continued up to 16th Dec 2006. The second batch of training was started from 18th to 23rd Dec 2006 and its trainers were Dr AK Rawat from Rewa, Dr Kiran Guleria from Delhi, Dr Ulka Jamal from Dhar and Dr Kamna Nigam from Indore.
The third batch of officers and supervisors were trained by a team of national trainers consisting Dr Anita Gupta from Delhi, Dr Rajinder Gulati from Ludhiana and Dr Ranjana Tiwari from Gwalior. This workshop was held from 25th Dec to 30th Dec.
While the fourth training workshop was scheduled from 1st Jan to 6th Jan 2007 and BPNI national trainers Dr Dheeraj Shah from Delhi, Dr Usha Vats from Lucknow and Dr S Manazar Ali from Aligarh conducted the training workshop.

Meeting with Secretary of Women and Child Department, Govt. of UP
BPNI,NEW DELHI: Dr Arun Gupta, Dr. MMA Faridi and K.P. Kushwaha of BPNI discussed the issues of IYCF with Balvinder Singh, secretary of WCD in a meeting on 11 July 2006. In the meeting, the representatives of UP government had agreed to organize training programems for medical students and health workers and to develop 450 middle level trainers to train anganwari workers in the state. Following this, P.K.Sudhir of BPNI had attended another meeting held on 4th September 2006 with the deputy director of ICDS department to formulate the training programmes in Uttar Pradesh.

Orientation lecture at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, N. Delhi
BPNI, NEW DELHI: PK Sudhir from BPNI delivered a lecture on the importance of breastfeeding and complementary feeding in Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) hospital, New Delhi on 28th Sept 2006 in which a group of 25 CDPOs, supervisors of ICDS scheme, lady health worker and staff nurses of DDU hospital participated.

BPNI members discuss IYCF with Dr. Kalam
BPNI, NEW DELHI: A team of BPNI comprising Dr Arun Gupta, Dr JC Sobti, Dr Rita Gupta and Dr Deeksha Sharma met President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, to brief him on infants' nutrition and survival issues on 4th August 2006 during the WBW 2006. In a half an hour discussion the members of BPNI raised the issues of infant survival in India. Dr. Kalam was curious to know the infant status and how infant mortality rates through breastfeeding could be reduced in India. Earlier in a letter sent to Dr Arun Gupta, President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam appreciated the kind of works initiated by BPNI and expressed his best wishes for the endeavours in improving the health of children in India. “It is a good mission you have taken up”, he articulated.

1st regional workshop on child survival, nutrition and health organized by MWCD, UNICEF and BPNI
BPNI NEWS DESK, NEW DELHI: The regional workshop on “Promoting Child Survival, Nutrition and Health by Achieving Optimal IYCF Practices” was organized in New Delhi on 5th June 2006 with an aim to sensitize various stakeholders on the importance of optimal Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF), to share state level models on IYCF with top level government officials and other representatives and to draw an action plan to achieve higher rate of optimal IYCF practices in northern states of India.
Emphasizing a strong need for creating awareness on optimal IYCF, Smt. Reva Nayyar, Secretary, Ministry of Women & Child Development (MWCD), GOI, who inaugurated the opening session of the workshop said that adding punch lines on optimal infant feeding in daily or weekly newspaper advertisements and in advocacy materials of polio campaign or any other government publicity materials would greatly help to create awareness on IYCF.
Shri Chaman Kumar, Joint Secretary, MWCD in a welcome address highlighted the objectives of this workshop and cited its due importance. MWCD in collaboration with UNICEF and BPNI had organized this regional workshop in New Delhi. This was the first of its kind regional workshop organized in northern India. Chief secretaries and high level government officers of concerned ministries and departments,its due importance.
MWCD in collaboration with UNICEF and BPNI had organized this regional workshop in New Delhi. This was the first of its kind regional workshop organized in northern India. Chief secretaries and high level government officers of concerned ministries and departments, representatives of UNICEF and BPNI, representatives of various professional organizations (IMA, IAP, FOGSI, NNF, TNAI, NIN) and NGOs, senior nutritionists, public health and child right groups from states of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Uttaranchal and Haryana had attended this workshop.
Dr. Arun Gupta, National Coordinator, BPNI in a presentation on “Optimal Breastfeeding for Child Nutrition and Survival” stressed the need for all the states to draw State Specific Plan of Action on IYCF practices keeping in view the revised national guidelines on IYCF.
He advised to recognize counselling on IYCF as core “service delivery”, to introduce 'Minimum Essential Package (MEP)' of providing nutrition support to lactating mothers for 1 year, incentive to workers to educate, support and help mothers to initiate breastfeeding within one hour, on providing IYCF counselling skills to families at village level and provide warmth and hygiene to newborns.

For Government of India:

Adequate financial resources should be allocated for improving optimal IYCF practices to prevent and reduce child malnutrition.
National policy should recognize skilled counseling on IYCF as “service delivery component” in the ICDS.
Sensitize MPs on the issues of infant nutrition and survival.

For State Governments :

Establish state level core groups on IYCF for effective coordination to improve child survival, growth and development.
Sensitize MLAs and PRIs on the issues of infant nutrition and survival.
Establishment of IYCF / breastfeeding support centers in all private health facilities run by trained women and in public services for every population of 5000.
Strengthen the health professionals' curriculum on IYCF.
Revive BFHI for all health facilities, link this with community workers and make skilled training in IYCF counseling as prerequisite for ANM, ASHA, AWW and TBA.