India has not taken breastfeeding seriously: report

Sunday, December 21, 2008 : 1330 Hrs

New Delhi (PTI): India has failed to put in place adequate mechanism to support breastfeeding as policy issues on this front, which could save lives of millions of infants, have been "neglected" so far in the country, says a report.

The latest report prepared by World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) said India stands in yellow band in a grid of red, yellow, blue and green in ascending order of performance and has not improved much compared to 2005 when a similar assessment was done.

Observing that over two million children out of 27 million die in India annually, the report on breastfeeding trends in India said the mortality rate could be brought down if gaps between policy and its implementation are bridged.

The WBTi is a global initiative to assess policy and programmes that support women for breastfeeding in 51 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The report said not much has significantly changed over the past three years in the policy environment except that maternity benefits have been provided to a miniscule number of women working under the Central government.

It said maternity benefits still not available to women working in the private and informal sector is a matter of concern.

"Policy on maternity entitlements must be announced for the private sector, informal sector, including self-employed women and agricultural labourers," the report said.

In India, the report identified newborn infections, Diarrhoea and Pneumonia as primary causes of infant mortality and said breastfeeding is the number one intervention for all these causes.