Commercialization of Mother\'s Milk

Cost o f Mother's MilkIn traditional donation-based milk banks-known in India as Human Milk Banks or, more broadly, as Comprehensive Lactation Management Centre (CLMC)-donor human milk (DHM) is collected voluntarily and should not carry monetary payment to donors.If we go through the various advantages of breast milk, it seems to be priceless.In fact, many of us have labeled it as "nectar" or "amrut" for life.White blood is as precious as red blood, since milk also has antibodies, anti-infective properties, and stem cells.Mother's milk is available in the market at the cost of around Rs 400 for 15 mL (approximately around 20,000 per L). 3 Nevertheless, there have been some private firms or multinational companies that gained licenses and sold processed human milk, and they reportedly charged a high price for the same, approximately Rs 15,000-20,000 per L. 4 Many cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi, and Pune have milk banks, with some being NGO-run and some companies selling commercially.Such pricing puts breast milk-which is a natural maternal product-in a commercial bracket, making it accessible mainly to those who can pay, which raises equity and ethical concerns.Thus, when turned into a "commodity," mother's milk acquires a financial cost that contradicts its original altruistic purpose in donation-based banking.