Kolkata- Trinamool Congress-run Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will shortly unveil special public bio-toilets with adjacent rooms for breast-feeding by lactating mothers.
Confirming the initiative, KMC’s Member- Mayor in Council (park, gardens and parking department) Debasish Kumar told IANS said that one special public bio-toilet with adjacent rooms for breast-feeding by lactating mothers will be set up in each of the 144 wards under KMC.
He said spaces for the same has already been identified for five wards and that for the remaining wards will be completed by the end of this month. Tenders will be floated for setting up of bio-toilets,” Kumar said.
In February, Kakinada Municipal Corporation in Andhra Pradesh started operating pink toilets for the facilitating women, including lactating mothers. These pink toilets have facilities like vending machines for sanitary napkins as well as separate feeding areas for lactating mothers. A similar initiative in the Kerala capital of Thiruvananthapuram was also announced last month. And now Kolkata will find a place in the list of cities which will have special toilets with separate spaces for breast-feeding.
Kumar confirmed that all precautions will be taken by the KMC authorities to maintain the hygiene of these special bio-toilets, especially the adjacent rooms dedicated for breast- feeding. Cleaning and sanitisation of the toilets will be carried out multiple times a day.
Last year, the KMC took a similar initiative in this regard by ensuring breast-feeding facilities for lactating mothers at the different shopping malls in the city. The KMC authorities took up the matter with the authorities of different shopping malls in the city and ensured that each mall had a separate place for it.
Before the KMC elections last year, Trinamool Congress, in its election manifesto made big promises for women of the city. One such promise was regarding setting up separate bio-toilets for women.
IANS spoke to a section of the women in the city and all of them welcomed the move. “Often the lactating mothers face problems in breast-feeding while they are out of their homes with their babies. At times even the mothers are unable to feed their babies. This initiative will surely solve these problems to a great extent,” Ghazal singer Anindita Moitra Das said.
Recalling the problems that she faced on this count when she became a mother 25 years back, school teacher, Jayita Sarkar said that she is happy that future mothers of the city will not have to face problems like her.
–IANS
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