'Half-hearted' attempt: Seven months on, breastfeeding, child nutrition act still in limbo

The act was passed on March 19 but an infant feeding board has yet to be set-up.

KARACHI:

The law for the promotion of breastfeeding and child nutrition is yet to see the light of day despite a passage of seven months since the Sindh assembly lawmakers unanimously passed the act. To ensure the implementation of the act, the government has to set up an infant feeding board and devise rules for carrying out its objective. 

"The act adopted by the Sindh Assembly suggests strict action with two years of punishment for those involved in the marketing and distribution of the products promoted as a supplement to mother's milk or as a complement to mother's milk," explained Iqbal Detho, the provincial manager advocacy and campaign of Save the Children. "This action is supposed to be taken by the board, which has not been formed yet."



Detho stressed that they had written letters to the chief minister and held meetings with the health secretary to expedite work to establish the board. "The board will receive reports against the violation of the law, recommend investigations into the cases against such manufacturers and even point out officials of the health department advising government on policies for the promotion of breastfeeding."

The act was passed by the assembly on March 19. The board will be set up under the supervision of the chairperson of the standing committee on health. Moreover, eight members of the board will include two members of the provincial assembly, one member each from the pharmaceutical industry and civil society and two members each from pediatricians and gynecologists.

Sindh parliamentary affairs minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro said that they would finalise the structure of the board within a few days. "We have nominated some members of the committee and would issue a notification soon," he said.

Officials of the health department, however, have no data about malnutrition and have never conducted any survey or devised any mechanism to deal with the companies minting money by putting the lives of infants at risk.

Health Secretary Inamullah Dhareejo said, after the notification is issued, the government would start a crackdown against such companies.

According to a study conducted by Save the Children, the rate of bottle-fed babies has risen by 8.9 per cent from 2006 to 2013. Around 352,000 million children between the ages of one to five years die annually in Pakistan and of them 35 per cent die because of malnutrition. The national nutrition survey launched by the planning commission of Pakistan stated that, in 2001, 18 per cent of children were reported with acute malnutrition, which increased to 21.2 per cent in 2010 and stood at 19.4 per cent in 2011.

Meanwhile, 44 per cent of children showed stunted growth in 2001 and the situation aggravated in 2010 when this figure climbed to 51.8 per cent. The statistics further revealed that Sindh is the poorest and most food-deprived province.

Shaheed Mohtarama Benazir Bhutto University paediatrics department head Professor Saifullah Jamro said, "Every fourth or fifth child is born with a low birth weight of 1.5 to 2 kg due to severe malnutrition in Larkana, Sukkur, Khairpur, Mirpurkhas and Hyderabad districts."

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2013.