Haryana Becomes First State to Implement Infant Milk Substitutes Act 2003

Rohtak (I-Haryana News): Haryana on Saturday with raids on the premises of a wholesale distributor of Nestle infant milk substitute food products at Rohtak has started the implementation of Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant Foods (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) Act 1992 and subsequent Amendment Act 2003, which discourage use of bottled and packaged feeds, directly or indirectly.

Section 9 of the IMS Act states that:

(a) No person who produces, supplies, distributes or sells infant milk substitutes or feeding bottles or infant foods shall offer or give, directly or indirectly, any financial inducements or gifts to a health worker or to any member of his family for the purpose of promoting the use of such substitutes or bottles or foods.

(b) No producer, supplier or distributor referred to in sub-section (i), shall offer or give any contribution or pecuniary benefit to a health worker or any association of health workers, including funding of seminar, meeting, conferences, educational course, contest, fellowships, research work or sponsorship.

The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, through their recent notification has also advised the State/ UT governments to ensure the relevant legal provisions in the interest of health of children.

With this raid as under IMS Act  Haryana became the first State in the country to implement Infant Milk Substitute (IMS) Act of a wholesale distributor of Nestle infant milk substitute food products namely M/s Satnarayan and Company, New Grain Market, Rohtak has been raided jointly by a team of Health Department and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Haryana.

Information to this effect was shared by Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration, Haryana, Dr Rakesh Gupta that the team seized some of the infant milk substitutes meant for supply to retailers in the district.

The manufacturer and the seller that is distributor or retailer of such products would be booked under various sections of the Infant Milk Substitute, Feeding Bottle and Infant Food (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 1992, which prevents deliberate advertisement and promotion of such products in the market. The company is printing the graphic of feeding bottle on its label along with the advertisements of other products which is prohibited under statute. Such products are prohibited for the children below two years, however, warning is written on the labels, added Dr Gupta.   

He said that some of the products recovered by the team included Prenan, Nanpro and Lactogen-1. The main accused in this case could be the manufacturer and supplier of the products as the State Government has already notified to proceed against companies or dealers promoting such products under the provisions of the Act. The company could be booked under sections 3 and 6 of the Act for such a violation, he added.

Dr Gupta said  ”The Act discourages the judicious use and promotion of milk substitutes as an alternate to mother’s milk. The Act prohibits the propagation of any advertisement or participation in any kind of promotion for the distribution, sale or supply of infant milk substitutes, feeding bottles or infant foods. In no way should an impression or belief be created on anyone that feeding of infant milk substitutes or infant foods are equivalent or better than mother’s milk.

Further, the Act prohibits any person from supplying, donating except to an orphanage or distributing samples, educational materials and gifts to promote the use or sale of infant milk substitutes, feeding bottles or infant foods.

The Act clearly states that on every container of the infant milk substitute or infant foods an important notice , “mother’s milk is best for your baby” must be mentioned in bold letters.

He said that babies not provided with adequate breastfeeds are at the risk of various infections, malnutrition and delayed development. 

Source: Intelligent Haryana News

Dinesh Singh Rawat's  Views:

I from bottom of my heart want to thanks government of haryana, specially to Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration, Haryana, Dr Rakesh Gupta for acting as per Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant Foods (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) Act 1992 and subsequent Amendment Act 2003 to promote breast feeding in the Haryana.

The parliament of India passed this bill to expressed its wiliness to fulfill the international obligation, as India has signed convention on this but Haryana has taken lead further by implementing it in real time to protect the childhood of our future generations.

Last not the least, I would like to pay regards to the writer Mrs Jatinder Kaur along with Intelligent Haryana  News to publish such an important news report , which I could not found on main stream media.