The Payyoli municipality has opened an exclusive space for travelling mothers to feed their children.
The feeding room set up inside the newly opened women’s waiting room at the Payyoli bus stand provides basic facilities for three mothers to simultaneously attend to their babies. It will function till 8 p.m. Cradles and facilities to change napkins too will be arranged at the centre shortly.
Municipal chairperson P. Kulsu said the project, which initially drew the criticism, had emerged as a model for other local bodies now.
Ms. Kulsu, a former chairperson of the Kerala State Women’s Development Corporation, said she was well aware of the difficulties faced by nursing mothers in public places like bus stands and railway stations. “I have witnessed the suffering of many such mothers who found it difficult to escape from annoying stares and filthy comments,” she said.
In the continuing attempts to achieve the status of the women-friendly bus stand, the municipal authorities have also decided to open a ‘she toilet complex’ at the bus stand.
