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NEW DELHI: India’s law to protect and promote breastfeeding practices by regulating marketing of baby food companies, the Infant Milk Substitute (IMA) Act 1992 has been hailed as being among the most effective.

A recent report that took stock of the marketing practices of baby food companies that were undermining breastfeeding practices stated that evidence from India suggested that violations were far fewer when the code to regulate marketing of breastmilk substitutes was enshrined in law and enforcement was effective.

“In 1992, the government of India passed the Infant Milk Substitutes Act. This goes further than the International Code and is backed by tough enforcement, including prosecution when companies break the law,” noted the report. The International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes often referred to as the Code is an international health policy framework to regulate the marketing of breastmilk substitutes in order to protect breastfeeding. The Code has been the basis of legislations to protect breastfeeding practices across the world.

The report by the international NGO Save the Children titled “Don’t Push It- Why the formula milk industry must clean up its act”, stated that “while there is a recognised need in some special cases for infants to be formula-fed, breast-milk substitutes are being used unnecessarily and improperly in rich and poor countries alike”.

The report advocates full adherence to the International Code in all countries. It stated that this was achievable “as the results in India proved”. The report called on companies to stop lobbying governments, which undermines national implementation of the Code.

The report cited a study conducted in India which found that advertising of breast-milk substitutes was “virtually non-existent” in the study area, that there was no point-of-sale promotions in shops and that company representatives had little direct contact with women or healthcare workers. The study also found almost no incidences of non-compliance on product labels.

The report credited India’s tough law as one of the factors for the steady improvement in breastfeeding rates in India. According to the National Family Health Survey of 2015-16, the share of children under three years who were breastfed within one hour of birth has touched 42% from an abysmal 23% in 2005-06. The same survey showed that in 2015-16, 55% children under six months in India were exclusively breastfed, up from 46% in 2004-05.

According to the report, most of the baby food companies failed to uphold their own marketing policies in all countries except India. The high levels of compliance were “a credit to the strength of the Infant Milk Substitutes Act, and to diligent application by healthcare workers and vigilant monitoring”, the report found.

However, the report noted that while Nestle seemed to have an excellent marketing policy on paper, it recorded the highest total number of incidences of non-compliance in the on-the-ground surveys in Vietnam, Indonesia, India and Thailand. It further stated that the aggressive marketing of breast-milk substitutes – in violation of the Code – was part of each company’s commercial strategy and driven from the very top.

Referring to the phenomenal growth of the global baby food market which is expected to touch $70 million in 2019, the report stated that much of this growth stemmed from powerful marketing campaigns that have led mothers to limit or abandon breastfeeding. Six companies today are among the leaders of the aggressive global promotion of milk formula and other foods for very young children – Nestlé, Danone, RB (which recently acquired Mead Johnson), Abbott, FrieslandCampina and Kraft Heinz, noted the report.

