Have you noticed no ads promoting baby formula like Cerelac for infants? Not even any celebrities talk about using them.
It’s because the Government of India passed the Infant Milk Substitutes Act in 1992. This Act has banned promoting baby food products, like Nestle’s baby formula ads to be aired in India. The mastermind, also considered Nestle’s enemy, behind this act is Dr. Arun Gupta, who fought relentlessly for this order to be enforced.
Revant Himatsingka, aka Food Pharmer, spotlighted the work of Dr. Arun Gupta on his Twitter page. Dr. Arun’s story is truly empowering and inspiring.
Dr. Arun Gupta is a pediatrician from Punjab. He gave up his 11 years of practice to protect and promote breastfeeding. He is the founder of the Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI), which has strengthened national policies that support breastfeeding, leading to a fall in the use of breastmilk substitutes since the 1980s. [1]
Dr. Arun, in his practice, noticed a fall in the practice of breastfeeding, with many mothers opting for baby food products that are used as breastmilk substitutes. He shares how mothers were misguided against breastfeeding by corporate companies like Nestle.
He noticed how companies like Nestle used marketing strategies that played with the vulnerability of breastfeeding mothers. [2] These companies sent their salesperson-dressed-up nurses directly to hospitals and the mothers to promote their products.
A mother's ability to secrete breast milk continuously depends upon her state of mind and constant feeding. When she is made to doubt if she is feeding her baby adequately, there is a high chance that she might drop breastfeeding practice altogether. These corporate companies used this to sell their baby formula food.
Also, they marketed their products by providing incentives to doctors and trained nurses to prescribe baby formulas in place of breast milk. Dr. Arun calls this a manipulation by assistance. [3]
In 1983 I conducted a survey in Jalandhar which included interviews with 100 mothers. I found that Nestlé’s “Lactogen” was prescribed even before the baby was born for every pregnant woman who was to deliver in all the 17 maternity homes of Jalandhar. The underlying factor was the free supply of the infant formula to the hospitals; for every tin they bought they got one “free”.
Dr. Arun Gupta, Founder of the Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India
Making mothers buy these breastmilk substitutes is one issue. The worst part is that these aggressive and misleading promotion tactics lead to the abandonment of breastfeeding.
The story goes like this:
A new mother, unaware of the essential breastfeeding practices, starts feeding her newborn. Naturally, it takes time for the mother and the baby to adapt to this new practice. For the first few days, the colostrum, expressed in a seemingly small amount, is enough for the newborn. Some mothers and infants can have difficulty in breastfeeding, which can be mended with proper guidance.
These mothers are confused and doubt if they are doing the right thing for the baby. At this time, they look forward to the trusted figures close to them: family, doctors, and nurses. When these trusted people assure them to use baby formula instead of breastmilk, the mothers listen. They use them. Their own breastmilk gets dried up and secretion stops in a few days. Now they’ve become entirely dependent on the baby formulas. And a new consumer is born for the corporate company.
And in reality, these formulas can’t even be compared to breastmilk in terms of nutrition.
These baby formulas are full of added sugars, which is not recommended for babies less than 2 years old. They are processed with chemicals and passed through gases to maintain their consumable nature. They don’t protect the baby from infections, and in turn, they pave the way towards obesity and diabetes in the babies.
A report from Public Eye [4] highlighted that Nestle adds high amounts of sugar—about 4 grams—to the baby food products that are sold in India and other Asian countries when compared to its US and European counterparts. This audacious act is happening while the WHO has prohibited the addition of sugars to baby food products.
To curtail this false advertising from corporate companies and to promote breastfeeding, Dr. Arun Gupta and his team fought relentlessly to pass the order to ban such promotion. As a result of his efforts, in 1992, India adopted the Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles, and Infant Foods (IMS) Act.
The IMS Act bans all forms of promotion of food products to children less than 2 years of age. It also bans sponsorship offers to health care professionals and health organizations from these infant food corporate companies. Violation of this act is a criminal offense. [5]
Despite this Act, companies like Nestle and Wockhardt have tried to surpass the rules and promote their products on several occasions. For example, Nestle invited doctors to a seminar on the dangers of unmodified bovine milk and, in the end, provided a free lunch and promoted lactogen. [6] Their promotion tactics were elusive. Dr. Arun filed a complaint against Nestle, condemning one of their promotion acts in a magazine, advising mothers to start giving their food products from 4 months of age. He shares how this company delayed the hearing and kept breaking the law. [6]
Nestlé resorted to delaying tactics. The company said it did not receive the summons, even though this has been served twice.
Dr. Arun Gupta, founder of the Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India
To control this, the IMS Act was strengthened in 2003 by building partnerships with NGOs like the BPNI to monitor such breaches in rules and aggressively promote breastfeeding. As a result of this collaborative work, exclusive breastfeeding rates hiked from 36.8% in 2000 to 58.3% in 2005 to 64.9% in 2014. [5]
In the Twitter message, Revant Himatsingka claims that sales of baby formula have dropped from 40,000 tons in 1980 to 29,000 tons in 2023 due to Dr. Arun Gupta’s hard work.
Breastfeeding is the most natural way of nourishing an infant. No other baby food can replace a mother’s milk. Dr. Arun Gupta noticed the threat to breastfeeding caused by the misleading promotional strategies followed by big baby food companies. His relentless and passionate work led to the implementation of the IMS Act and boosted the rate of exclusive breastfeeding. Also, his hawk-eyed approach to observing the breaches in this law further curtailed the mothers being misinformed.
References:
“Dr. Arun Gupta,” n.d. https://drarungupta.net/.
Holla, Radha, Arun Gupta, Raj K. Anand, and Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India. PROTECTING, PROMOTING AND SUPPORTING BREASTFEEDING: THE INDIAN EXPERIENCE. Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India, 2003. https://www.bpni.org/wp-content/uploads/reports/black-book.pdf.
Gupta, Arun, Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India, and International Baby Food Action Network. “Manipulation by Assistance: Undermining Breastfeeding.” Economic & Political Weekly, August 6, 2008. https://drarungupta.net/articles/Manipulation_by_Assistance_Undermining_Breastfeeding.pdf.
Sen, Sesa. “Nestle’s Shocker: Excess Sugar In Baby Food Products In India, Other Asian Countries, Finds Study.” NDTV Profit, April 18, 2024. https://www.ndtvprofit.com/business/nestle-uses-excess-sugar-in-baby-food-products-especially-in-developing-countries-report.
Yale School of Public Health. “India’s Infant Milk Substitutes Act, Monitoring, and Enforcement,” May 30, 2018. https://ysph.yale.edu/news-article/indias-infant-milk-substitutes-act-monitoring-and-enforcement/.
Gupta, Arun and Association for Consumers Action on Safety and Health (ACASH) Bombay. “Hungry for Power,” n.d. https://drarungupta.net/articles/nestle_in_india_hugry_for_power.pdf.
