New Delhi: A public health consortium on Tuesday asked actor Amitabh Bachchan to break off his association with a campaign on childhood nutrition, launched last week by the makers of Horlicks citing malnourishment among Indian children.

The Nutrition Advocacy in Public Interest, a non-government group made up of paediatricians and nutrition specialists, has said the campaign is "misleading and undermines optimal nutrition". It has said the campaign could influence families into buying Horlicks, assuming it is a nutritious product.

"Horlicks is a high-sugar product, as 100 grams of a popularly advertised pack of Horlicks Delight contains 78 grams of carbohydrates, of which 32 grams is sucrose sugar," a 10-member executive body of the NAPI said in a letter to Bachchan.

"This is harmful for children as it may contribute to childhood obesity and non-communicable disease in later life," the letter said, citing the World Health Organisation's recommendations to reduce daily free sugar intake to less than 10 per cent of total energy intake.

GSK Consumer Healthcare had on May 31 announced the launch of its campaign "Horlicks Mission Poshan". It said this would focus, with Bachchan as "campaign ambassador", on the first 1,000 days of a child to address malnutrition, stunting and infant mortality.

The company said Bachchan would be part of many activities planned round the year, including a 12-hour live "Telethon" and awareness camps across schools and villages.

"Our initiative has a singular goal - to help promote the need for nutritional needs across rural and urban India," Navneet Saluja, managing director of GSK Consumer Healthcare, had said during the launch.

"Horlicks Mission Poshan is a small step to support the National Nutrition Mission of the Government of India. We are committed to dialling up mass awareness around malnourishment and working with civil society towards its eradication."#But NAPI has cited a 2016 resolution of the World Health Assembly that recommends ending inappropriate promotion of foods for children aged six to 36 months and refers to dietary guidelines from the WHO and the Food and Agricultural Organisation.

In their letter to Bachchan, the NAPI experts have said they fear the campaign will influence families from poor households into buying Horlicks, assuming it is a nutritious product as Bachchan is behind it.

"Horlicks is expensive, (and) may displace real family foods. Thus your association with Horlicks is unlikely to achieve the objective of curbing under-nutrition in India," the letter said.

It reminded Bachchan that he had renounced his association with Pepsi in 2014 based on the health implications the soft drink has on children. The association with Horlicks is "equally harmful for children's health", the letter said.

Several paediatricians have lent their support to NAPI's concerns. "I fear this campaign may have serious adverse repercussions," Arti Maria, head of neonatology at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi, said.

"Horlicks is expensive, it is likely to drain the pockets of marginalised families under the mistaken belief that it is a good, nutritious product endorsed by Bachchan."

"Celebrities should avoid lending their name and image to such products," said Harsh Pal Singh Sachdev, a senior paediatrician at the Sita Ram Bhartia Institute. Maria and Singh expressed their concerns through a media release issued by NAPI.

GSK Consumer Healthcare had, while launching the campaign, cited reports that India had the largest number of malnourished children in the world and ranked 100th out of 119 countries on the global hunger index, behind Bangladesh, North Korea and Iraq.

But paediatricians have described the campaign as misleading. "Yes, India has a big malnutrition problem, but Horlicks is not the solution," Arun Gupta, a child health and nutrition advocate who is among the signatories to the letter, said.