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The training manuals on infant and young child feeding counseling developed by Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI) was released by Smt. Reva Nayyar, Secretary, Department of Women and Child Development, Government of India, here last evening. Releasing the training manuals, Smt. Nayyar emphasized that now to create an atmosphere that enables the best choices in infant and young child feeding practices by supporting the breastfeeding and complimentary feeding. Underlining the importance of breastfeeding, she said that by disseminating nutrition information to the parents and family we can make the whole community aware about breastfeeding issues. She hoped that this integrated training maual will be widely used for training of ICBS and other agencies workers.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Eimor Barr, Deputy Director, UNICEF said that young child malnutrition levels in India remain unacceptably high and around two thirds of infant deaths occur in life and more often related to inappropriate feeding practices. The training modules seek to empower trainers, health and child care professionals and workers with knowledge and skills to counsel mothers and families effectively, he said.
According to WHO “Malnutrition has been responsible, directly or indirectly, for 60 per cent of the 10.9 million deaths annually among children under five, 2.42 million of these (roughly one quarter) deaths are in India alone. According to another study, 47 per cent of the children under 3, i.e., about 36 million are underweight, which has profound negative consequences on physical development and mental health of children and thus Indian society.
For the first time, Government of India has included state specific goals in its 10th five year plan to improve infant and young child feeding practices to reduce Infant Mortality Rates (IMR) and malnutrition. The five-year plan aims to improve exclusive breastfeeding rate to 80 per cent during first 6 months from the current level of around 41 per cent and increase rate of complementary feeding from 33.5 per cent to 75 per cent.
The theme of this year’s World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is continued breastfeeding and giving other foods after six months of age.
This year, WBW will focus on how governments, NGOs, health workers and community workers can have a positive impact on the health status of infants and young children and the level of malnutrition in the community can be reduced by exclusively breastfeeding the child for the first six months and by providing optimal feeding practices for the children.
SK: SPS: NC
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