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Multinational food giant Nestle is facing another controversy as it sponsored a ‘scientific’ workshop for Indian doctors, which has been termed as a breach of the Infant Milk Substitutes (IMS) Act by the Central Government.
Last week, Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan shot off a letter to the Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) alleging breach of the IMS Act by Nestle Nutrition Institute.
The implementation of the IMS Act and its monitoring comes under the domain of the Ministry of the WCD. However, currently, there are no dedicated authorised officers appointed at the district level by the Centre or the States to enforce implementation of the IMS Act.
Sudan, in the letter dated January 11 to the WCD, stated, “You may consider appointing an authorised officer for close monitoring and supervision of IMS Act implementation in the districts as per the provisions of the Act.”
The trigger for this communication was a scientific programme organised by baby food manufacturer Nestle’s global not-for-profit Nestle Nutrition Institute (NNI) on October 24 last year in Hotel Spice Treat of Dhule district in Maharashtra.
Sudan also sent an advisory to Health Secretaries of all States and the WCD on January 11 stating that the IMS Act bans sponsorship of health workers or their associations by companies manufacturing infant milk substitutes.
Section 9.2 of the IMS Act states that no person who produces, supplies, distributes or sells infant milk substitutes 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, fellowship, research work or sponsorship.
“Bottle feeding practices and feeding children with infant milk substitutes act as a deterrent to breastfeeding practices, besides increasing the risk of various infections among infants and young children,” Sudan also stated.
She has stated in the letter that a one-day sensitisation workshop covering the framework of the IMS Act should be carried out to promote breast-feeding in all States.
Company denies charge
In response to a query from BusinessLine, Nestlé India stated that it condemns the allegation levelled against its scientific workshops. “We would like to confirm that we have not received any letter from the government on the issue. We strongly condemn the misrepresentation of scientific workshops organised by NNI. At no stage during the deliberations of NNI’s scientific workshops, any product is discussed or displayed,” a spokesperson of the company maintained. However, the company did not deny that it had sponsored the workshop, which the Health Ministry maintains is in direct violation of the IMS Act.
(With inputs from Meenakshi Verma Ambwani)
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