Bhubaneswar, 19th Aug 2025: Mother’s milk is like nectar. Breastfeeding keeps newborns healthy. To spread awareness about its importance, every year from August 1 to 7, World Breastfeeding Week is observed across the country. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, through the National Health Mission, spends crores of rupees on celebrations and awareness campaigns. However, in Odisha, the situation has shown little improvement. Dependence on packaged milk is increasing compared to breastfeeding, with the situation more alarming in urban areas than rural ones. This has been highlighted in the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) report.
According to the state Health Department guidelines, only 72.9% of children in Odisha are exclusively breastfed. In NFHS-4, the rate of breastfeeding newborns within one hour of birth was 68.5Percent, and in NFHS-5, this figure has remained unchanged. In Khordha district, including the state capital Bhubaneswar, the rate stands at 73.3Percent.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare conducts NFHS every five years to monitor the health of mothers and children through the National Health Mission. The latest survey, NFHS-5 (2019–21), shows that institutional births have risen from 85.3% earlier to 92.2Percent now. But when it comes to breastfeeding, only 68.5Percent (68.6Percent in rural areas and 67.9% in urban areas) of children are breastfed within the first hour of birth.
Exclusive breastfeeding for six months is considered most nutritious and critical for a child’s health and growth, but in Odisha, this rate is just 72.9Percent(73.7Percent rural, 68.3Percent urban). Between 6 and 8 months, 67.5Percent of children are both breastfed and given complementary foods.
However, increasing preference for purchased, packaged foods from birth is leading to child health problems. According to NFHS-5, among children under five years of age:
31Percent are stunted (low height for age) – rural: 32Percent, urban: 24.9Percent
29.7Percent are underweight (low weight for age) – rural: 31Percent, urban: 21.5Percent
3.5Percent are overweight (high weight for height) – rural: 3.2Percent, urban: 5.5Percent
In Odisha, Breastfeeding Week is celebrated in every district each year, but the celebrations appear largely ceremonial and superficial. Due to lack of seriousness in awareness drives and inadequate commitment from officials, the government’s intended goals remain unfulfilled.