This story is from May 20, 2019

Taj Mahal, other Agra monuments to have special baby feeding rooms

Taj Mahal, other Agra monuments to have special baby feeding rooms
Taj Mahal
AGRA: In a progressive step to give privacy to breastfeeding mothers, the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) is all set to earmark exclusive “baby feeding” rooms at three World heritage sites – Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, and Fatehpur Sikri.
Talking to TOI, ASI superintending archeologist (Agra circle) Vasant Swarankar said that this is the first time such a facility will be provided at a monument in India. He added that there are a total of 3,886 monuments in the country under ASI’s care.

According to the official, the process of identifying available spaces had already started and these baby feeding rooms will be ready in the next two months. Swarankar said the existing infrastructure at these places is being reviewed and each room will have basic amenities of light, fan, chair and a table.
He said that the decision to build these room was taken after observing the difficulties breastfeeding mothers face while visiting the monuments as they have to hide themselves behind walls or even hedges at times.
“The situation turns even more embarrassing on days when there is a rush of tourists. Considering this, the ASI decided to provide some space to them,” he said.
In 2017, the director of Victoria and Albert Museum, London, had apologized to a breastfeeding woman after she complained that she was asked to cover up while breastfeeding at the museum there. The woman later took to social media to point out the irony of the encounter at a museum “filled with naked depictions of women”.

Similarly, in August 2015, a mother was asked to leave a historic tourist attraction in Spanish city of Granada because she was breastfeeding her infant in public, stirring up a controversy with mothers' rights groups. The woman was visiting the Corral del Carbón monument with her nine-month-old baby and partner when the infant started to cry; so she sat down in the courtyard and started to breastfeed, local newspaper El Independiente de Granada had reported. A security guard at the site saw her breastfeeding and asked her to leave the area.
While there are no laws banning women in India from nursing their infant in public, the surroundings more often than not are unfavourable causing them embarrassment.
However, an amendment in the Maternity Benefit Act in 2017 provided big relief to working mothers across India, after it made was mandatory for the establishments with over 50 workers to set up crèches. According to the law, mothers are entitled to visit the crèches up to four times a day and two nursing breaks per day in addition to any other breaks that are available as a matter of course, until the child attains the age of 15 months.
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