Adamawa, other states challenge don six-month paid maternity leave
The Adamawa State Government has been charged to embrace the policy of granting six months paid maternity leave to its workers to give nursing mothers sufficient time for exclusive breast
The Adamawa State Government has been charged to embrace the policy of granting six months paid maternity leave to its workers to give nursing mothers sufficient time for exclusive breast feeding.
A non-governmental organisation working to raise nutrition in children, Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (SC-SUNN), articulating its conviction during an interaction with newsmen in Yola on Friday, said exclusive breast feeding enhances nutrition and will address public health and development challenge which it said is critical in Adamawa State.
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During the SC-SUNN media dialogue which attracted journalists to whom presentations on malnutrition were made by resource persons who equally fielded questions from the participants, the journalists heard that only 15 of Nigeria's 36 states and Abuja currently adopt the six-month maternity leave policy.
This excludes Adamawa State, although the North East appears to have done well in the matter, as four states in the region: Borno, Yobe, Gombe and Bauchi have the policy in place.
A press statement validated at the roundtable noted that despite strong agricultural potential, Adamawa State suffers "persistently high levels of child malnutrition", with stunting at 48.6 percent, wasting at 7 percent, and underweight at 32.5 percent.
