After bagging the first prizes in total literacy and health care in the country, Kerala added another feather to its list of honours as the number one state with the best socio-economic indicators for quality life. On Thursday, the state was declared the world�s first “baby-friendly state.” The recognition has come from the World Health Organization and the United Nations International Children�s Fund under the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative that the global agencies launched a few years back. As per the Initiative, a WHO-UNICEF team evaluated Kerala�s maternity hospitals, which it said are the best ‘baby-friendly hospitals’ in the world. On Thursday, Kerala Governor Sikander Bakht read out a declaration at Kochi in the presence of WHO-UNICEF officials proclaiming the state to be the world�s first baby-friendly state. “We are happy that Kerala has got such a big recognition from WHO and UNICEF on the state�s superb health status. It shows that the public health system in Kerala continues to excel in India,” Kerala Health Minister P Shankaran told rediff. A UNICEF statement said Kerala gets this honour for its relentless effort to ‘protect, promote and support exclusive breast-feeding of infants for six months and supplementary breast-feeding beyond.’ It stated that such efforts have resulted in considerable reduction in infant mortality and infant diseases in the state. The WHO-UNICEF Initiative has certified 622 maternity hospitals � which constitute more than 90 per cent of the maternity hospitals in Kerala � to be ‘baby-friendly.’ The unique features that make these hospitals baby-friendly include a written breast-feeding policy, staff training and creation of a breast-feeding-friendly attitude in the parents. According to UNICEF, a country or a state can be declared baby-friendly if more than 80 per cent of its maternity hospitals are “baby-friendly” under the Initiative. Minister Shankaran said Kerala was one of the first states in the country to promote the UNICEF Initiative. “We established a state level task force for making our hospitals baby-friendly way back in 1991. We also gave extensive training to several doctors and other hospital staff under the Initiative,” he pointed out. UNICEF-India deputy programmes director Erma Menoncourt said Kerala emerged as the first state in the world to attain this unique recognition because it effectively implemented the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes adopted by WHO. The Code stipulates that health facilities should never be involved in the promotion of breast milk substitutes and that free samples should not be provided to new mothers. “Kerala�s high level of literacy, good health care system, gender equality and the state�s high regard for children�s rights were the excellent qualities that contributed to granting it the baby-friendly status,” Menoncourt said. As per UNICEF records, Kerala ranks highest in low infant mortality rate in the country. The number of infant deaths per 1000 births in Kerala is estimated to be 13. Moreover, as much as 97 per cent of child births in the state takes place in a hospital or a health facility, while across other parts of India, the figure is much lower.