Breastfeeding is integral to a child’s right to life; states obliged to have nursing rooms for new mothers in public spaces: SC

NEW DELHI: Days ahead of International Women’s Day, the Supreme Court invoked the fundamental right to life to hold it as integral to the right of a child to be breastfed, which in turn, it said, is inextricably linked to a woman’s right to breastfeed. The SC said that States must ensure adequate facilities and environments for breastfeeding mothers in all the Public Sector Undertakings and public places while protecting their privacy.
All new public buildings, under construction or at a planning stage, must reserve sufficient space for childcare or nursing rooms, ruled the SC.
The SC said the Centre may, within two weeks, issue such an advisory to all states and union territories for nursing stations in PSUs. It expressed confidence that states would construe the directives in the spirit of the fundamental right to equality under Article 14 and the right to make special provisions for the welfare of women and children under Article 15 (3) of the Constitution.
“Over and above the duty of the state to facilitate the exercise of the right of nursing mothers to breastfeed their children, the citizens must ensure that the practice of breastfeeding in public places and at workplaces is not stigmatized,’’ said the SC bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Prasanna Varale in a February 19 judgment, made available recently.
The SC said, “Breast-feeding is an integral component of a child’s right to life, survival, and development to the highest attainable standard of health. It is an integral part of a woman’s reproductive process and is essential for the health and well-being of both mother and the child. Experts recommend that children be exclusively breast-fed for the first six months of their life and from the age of six months, children should commence consuming safe and adequate complementary foods while continuing to be breast-fed for up to two years of age or beyond. This view is also supported by Section 5(a) of the National Food Security Act, 2013’’.
The ruling came in a PIL filed in 2022 by an NGO, Maatr Sparsh An Initiative by Avyaan Foundation, to ensure the protection of mothers’ and infants' fundamental right to breastfeeding in public places.
The SC did not issue notices to states. However, it said a communication of February 27, 2024, by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development to all Chief Secretaries of all states covers the concerns raised in the PIL. The Centre’s advisory aims at “creating gender-friendly spaces in workplaces of ministries and all govt departments along with their affiliated institutions, PSUs, and infrastructure to promote women’s workforce participation.’’
The Centre had last year said, due to a slew of measures taken by the Government in the past 5 years, the Female Labour Force Participation Rate in India has increased from 23.3% to 37.0%.
The World Bank estimates that even if half of the women in India can join the workforce, the country can potentially boost its economic growth by 1.5 percentage points, thus raising India’s GDP to 9 percent per year. To achieve this, the barriers to women’s workforce participation have to be addressed sooner than later.
Centre wants states to: