India: breast feeding is obsolete, the bottle is modern
Uniyal, M.
Journalen Sykepleien 80(14): 21
1992
ISSN/ISBN: 0802-9776 PMID: 1463652 Document Number: 327372
In July, 1992 Indian health groups met in New Delhi to demand that the government promote a child nutrition code based on the 1981 code of the WHO which stated that mother's milk is quite sufficient and is the best nourishment for infants. Every day approximately 40,000 children are born in India, but thousands of them die in infancy because of infection caused by the unsanitary mixing of milk powder in unsterile bottles. Indian health activists want the government to regulate the production, access, and distribution of mother's milk substitutes, bottles, and child nutriments. A new law based on internationally recognized codes for marketing mother's milk substitutes could put an end to the present irresponsible marketing. Activists are not opposed to the production of milk powder, but they think it should only be used when the mother has no milk. The turnover of India's child nutrition industry is about $280 million per year with an annual increase of 5%. The use of bottle feeding has infiltrated the whole urban scene, and it is spreading in rural areas. Women consider bottle feeding a modern way of child feeding. 60 million kg of milk powder is produced yearly and sold under 25 different product names. Amul and Nestle command 85% of the growing market. Experts have calculated that 1 billion liters of mother's milk is wasted and replaced by substitute milk every year. Many Indian children get their first substitute milk at health posts where free or subsidized milk is distributed despite notices calling on mothers to breast-feed. According to a national survey sponsored by UNICEF, almost 1/2 of India's mothers give their children milk substitutes at the instigation of doctors or health personnel. 63% of children in the state of West Bengal were undernourished because families did not buy enough milk powder. The activists want the government to launch an offensive against the advertisement of breast milk substitutes in state-owned TV and radio and to promote proper nutrition in magazines read by millions of the Indian middle class who use these products most.