Lack Of Funding for Breastfeeding Support Fails Mothers

The nation suffers.

- Ramesh Kumar Raja

About 15 million babies out of 26 million born are not able to begin breastfeeding within one hour of birth even as 80% of women deliver in health facilities, says a new report that looks at policies and programmes to support women. This is “putting them at higher risk of death and disease and making them less likely to continue breastfeeding,” say WHO and UNICEF.

The report titled, Arrested Development, the 5th Report of Assessment of India’s Policy and Programmes on Breastfeeding and Infant and Young Child Feeding 2018 has been compiled by a national consortium of public health groups and agencies including government departments, AIIMS and UNICEF, under the aegis of World Breastfeeding Trends initiative (WBTi), and is based on consensus among several organisations and feedback from key policy makers of the Government of India.

As per the WBTi, which provides objective scoring, India has scored 45 out of 100 on policy and programmes, rising from 44 in 2015.

The report suggests weak assistance to women in removing barriers they face to optimally feed their babies. This happens in almost every sector concerning infant feeding including health, women and child, HIV, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Labour and related others.

Out of 18.8 million women exclusively breastfeeding at less than two months, the numbers nosedive to 10.7 million at six months. Only 2 out of 5 babies of 68 months begin with solid foods along with continued breastfeeding, and only one out of 10 children 6-24 months old receive the minimum acceptable diet containing a variety from four food groups. The report finds that money spent on protecting, promoting and supporting breastfeeding is despairingly deficient than that recommended.