Championing this cause is Dr R K Anand, head of the Department of Paediatrics of Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai. ``The picture of the healthy baby promotes the false image that these cereals are complete foods for the baby. I am not asking for a ban on these products. Let them be available in the market, but the advertisements have to stop,'' he says.

In fact, Anand recommends to mothers who consult him that they use cereals only in emergency situations like long trips; mashed fruit and other fresh food are better substitutes, he says.

The ministry of health has constituted a committee under the Infant Milkfood Substitute (IMS) Act to look into the ban on advertising of infant food substitutes. The IMS Act has already banned advertisements of infant milk formula and feeding bottles, but infant food substitutes have been left out of the clause.

The activists are also keen on making the government stipulate that mothers feed their infants only breast milk up to six months of age, under the code on marketing of breast milk substitutes. ``Right now, the code recommends breast-feeding up to four months, but the ministry of health does not have a fixed stand on the issue,'' says Arun Gupta, another paediatrician and head of the NGO, Breast-feeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI). He says he has been through at least seven ministry status papers on breast-feeding, each of which gives a different number of months that an infant should be solely breast-fed.

In fact, this difference of opinion exists within the UN agencies too. ``UNICEF has recommended that the International Code on Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes recommend six months of only breast-feeding. However, the WHO paper suggests four months. We are trying to work this out within our organisation and hopefully, the UNICEF stand will go through,'' says Alain Court, UNICEF representative in India.

If the campaigners have their way, several MNCs will have to change their ad strategies. These include Nestle's Nestum and Cerelac, Heinz's Farex Dallmia Dairy's Weano and Wockhardt's Dexolax Rice.

``The violations under the IMS Act are much lower now with companies complying with the infant milk and feeding bottles code, but we want to ensure that the code brings cereal formula also under its ambit,'' says Anand. The main problem with breast-feeding, Anand says, is that mothers do not get sufficient support to continue with it. ``Within the first two weeks, many mothers face problems and are not counselled properly,'' says Anand. Anand and his group of doctors have formed a mothers' group in Mumbai, who form support groups for new, lactating mothers.

``We make older mothers visit others who have just delivered in hospital and counsel them suitably and also help them out in case of any crisis,'' says Anand.

The activists are also campaigning for maternity leave to be extended to six months, instead of the current four months, so that mothers can feed their infants only on breast milk for six months. ``We have to make sure governments implement this proposal to ensure better health for infants,'' says Court.