South Central Railway’s First Breastfeeding Kiosk for Nursing Mothers

Breastfeeding Kiosk, a first of its kind, has been set up at Begumpet Railway Station, Hyderabad for nursing mothers. Incidentally, Begumpet Railways Station is also the first of its kind All Women Staff Railway Station in the South Central Railways. // The Kiosk was set up by Rotary International District 3150 with the support from South Central Railways. It was formally inaugurated by one of the top Rotarians in the world, Gary C.K. Huang, Chairman, The Rotary Foundation who was on five-city visit to India and Archana Rachel, Asst Commercial Manager, South Central Railways.

The Kiosk which is the brainchild of Rotarian Sesh Sai Kumar. It has been in his mind since he saw one in Chennai four years back. He designed and executed the kiosk along with Rotarian Srikanth Gummely, who provided interior design support. The kiosk is located on platform 1.

Begumpet Railway station is a very important and busy station. Nearly 1.5 lakh passengers commute through this station. 121 MMTS Trains and 54 other trains travel through this station. Begumpet is the all-women staff railway station. The kiosk was set up as a pilot project for the benefit of the women passengers. This three cubicles Breastfeeding Kiosk was set up at the cost of Rs. 1 lakh.

Nursing mothers undertaking a train journey will need privacy. With these cubicles around, they will be able to breastfeed away from prying eyes. According to Rotary and Railways, more "baby feeding corners or centers/ cubicles will be set up shortly at more Railway Stations.

Women became Rotary members first in the year 1989. Since then many women joined in the Rotary Fraternity across the globe. Women comprise 22% of 12 lakh Rotary members across the world said Gary CK Huang, Chairman of the Rotary Foundation.

Gary heads the Foundation which has 100 years history of raising and spending INR 28000 crore across the world on various service projects in the past 100 years since its inception. The Breastfeeding Kiosk is a very useful project, he said.

Maternal and Childcare are one of the focus areas of Rotary International. Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Vijayawada divisions of South Central Railways has issued letters to Rotary District 3150 for setting up of the Kiosks in various stations in their divisions. There are three such kiosks at Secunderabad, Hyderabad and Bidar. But, they were set up by SCR on its own. This kiosk is the first of its kind set up with private partnership. Informed Arachana Rachel of SCR.

Breastfeeding is one of the basic amenities required at the Railway Stations. Railway Board prescribed 20 minimum amenities be provided at the Railway Stations. Breastfeeding Kiosk is one of them.

The kiosks at Secunderabad and Hyderabad evoked a very good response. This is the facility long-awaited and is very useful to the nursing mothers. We hope to continue this collaboration with Rotary International informed Archana Rachel. This kiosk is the most mother-friendly kiosk she said.

Indian Railways is constantly endeavoring to improve facilities and services at stations and on trains Augmentation of facilities and services done from time to time based on the traffic volume; expectations of the traveling public; and the availability of funds, she shared.



Source-Medindia