'34 per cent births in Tamil Nadu by C-section; breastfeeding not supported'

CHENNAI: Thirty-four per cent of births in Tamil Nadu are through caesarean section, which is well  above WHO threshold of 15 per cent and more than the rate recorded in other States, a report said here on Wednesday. The report, ‘Spotlight on Infant Feeding in  Tamil Nadu 2020 -— Tracking Policies and Programmes in Support of Women  and Children to Adopt Optimal Feeding Practices from Conception to Two  years or Beyond’ was prepared by State Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (SBTI) and launched by Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan.

Quoting  National Family Health Survey-4, the report said of the  total caesarean sections, 26 per cent happen in public health  facilities and 51 per cent in private facilities.  Tamil Nadu is ranked tenth among all States based on infant feeding  score provided by the National Health Mission-Ministry of Health, the report said. Hailing the State’s history of  well-structured primary healthcare, the report said performance across 10 indicators used to measure infant feeding  score is uneven.

This is mostly due to weak implementation of Infant Milk Substitutes Feeding Bottles, and Infant Foods (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 1992, and  Amendment Act, 2003, and the actual implementation of early  breastfeeding programme. “Tamil Nadu has scored 3 out of 10 in  this indicator. In February 2020, the State notified designated officers of the district Food  Safety Department as authorized officers (Doctors) at the district level  for taking cognizance of any violation of the IMS Act, 1993, and Amendment Act, 2003.

However, the State neither documented any  report on monitoring of the compliance of the IMS Act in the past two  years, nor organized awareness events,” the report said.  To bring more emphasis, IMS Act should also be part of the policy note of the State government, it added.  The health secretary  vowed to bridge the gaps to improve the status of Infant and Young Child  Feeding practices in the State. He said the State has provided breastfeeding rooms in 352 bus  stands. It has also set up 26 breastmilk banks in  government hospitals and district hq hospitals.

HC orders transfer of Pachaiyappa’s Trust to court
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The Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered transfer of Pachaiyappa’s Trust administration to the administrator-general and official trustee of the court. The court also relieved former judge Justice P Shanmugam from the post of interim administrator as per his request and setting aside the order of single judge. The first bench of Chief Justice A P Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy passed the directions while setting aside the order passed by a single judge on December 18, 2019.

Pointing out that the original relief sought was only about conduct of elections to the board of trustees, the bench held that the extension of scope of the plea by the single judge to other issues concerning the trust cannot be sustained. The court then passed the matter to the single judge to revisit the matter broadly in respect of the three issues of dispute that have been raised - election of the board of trustees, examination of the reasons, and the need to modify the scheme if at all required, and procedure, form and substance of proceedings relating to the administration.

On December 18, 2019 the single judge passed the order, holding that the scheme to manage the Pachaiyappa’s Trust is the brainchild of the High Court and that the judiciary cannot remain a mute spectator when the baby struggles to survive. The judge added that only an ex-judge of the court could do full justice to the trust.