Mother’s milk bank project in limbo

DR HL MEENA, SUPERINTENDENT, LON HOSPITAL SAID EVEN AFTER ONE-AND-A-HALF YEARS, THERE IS STILL NO PROGRESS ON

THE PROJECT

KOTA: A proposed ‘Mother Milk Bank’ for Kota announced by the former state government in May last year is still in cold storage more t han a year a f t e r i t s announcement.

The former State government had sanctioned ~3 crores in 2018 for establishing Aanchal Mother Milk Bank in the medical colleges of Kota, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Jhalawar after which the then state-level consultant and yoga guru, Devendra Agarwal visited Kota in May 2018 for the establishment of the bank.

Agarwal and officials of the Government Medical College Kota and Government Jay Kay Lon hospital of Kota had then v allocated a space of around 1000 feet at the hospital premises.

Officials of at hospital said the bank was proposed to be set up in nine months at an expenditure of around ~ 78 lakhs. Dr HL Meena, superintendent, Lon Hospital said even after one-and-a-half years, there is no progress on the project. “Around 12,000 institutional deliveries of newborns takes place every year at the the Lon hospital for which the milk bank is a necessity”, he said.

Dr Deependra Sharma, principal specialist, Pediatrics, Lon Hospital said that more than 50% of infant deaths out of the total infant deaths occurs due to Pneumonia and Diarrhea which c an be prevented t hrough mother’s milk. So a milk bank can certainly help in ensuring due nutrition to the newborns.

“Mother’s milk is rich in immunoglobulin, which boosts the immunity of infants”, he said. Dr Sharma said the proposed bank hasn’t received any money for its setting up so far.

There are mother milk banks in 19 districts across t he state,according to official data..