{"id":3107,"date":"2016-06-28T16:03:45","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T10:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3107"},"modified":"2026-07-17T20:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T14:53:12","slug":"breastfeeding-in-public-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3107","title":{"rendered":"When Did India Become Ashamed About Breastfeeding in Public?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"container page-content\"><p>\n\n<span class=\"dropcap\">M<\/span>\n\n<\/div>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">onths before I gave birth to my first child, I was bombarded with lessons on the benefits of breastfeeding: A colleague advised me to pinch my nipples to ready my breasts for the \u201cgreat awakening\u201d and the nurses in the hospital kept saying, \u201cRajputro ke shara din doodh khavate hobe, bujhle (The prince has to be fed milk all day, understand?)\u201d Once I returned home, my mother-in-law poured sabu dana doodh down my throat every few hours while my <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/humour\/when-mothers-visit-living-alone-bombay-parents\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ma<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> insisted I eat rice with roasted kala jeera, all foods that were supposed to enhance my body\u2019s production of breast milk. From the maalishwali to the relative I saw only once in my entire life, everyone, including Dr Spock, had only great things to say about breastfeeding.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As any <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pov\/women-career-supermoms-mediocre-moms-mothers-homemakers\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">new mother<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, I was a little apprehensive about welcoming a new being that would upend my life \u2013 and body \u2013 in several ways. But it was only a few days after giving birth, when the effects of a Caesarean section wore off, that I truly realised the importance of everything I was being told. And how amazing breastfeeding was. The more my baby sucked on a breast, the more my body produced. It nurtured and soothed him and strangely, it soothed my postpartum blues away. It was the kind of magic you know nothing about until it happens to you. I found myself breastfeeding my child at all hours of the day, dealing with heavy letdowns, bitten nipples, and finally, breast pumps when I left for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/people\/dont-mess-with-working-moms\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">work<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a few months later. The journey was as exhilarating as it was tiring, but at the end of the day, it was a deeply private yet obvious thing to do. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was only when I set foot out of the house and nursed in public that I realised what new moms are up against. One time, I was taking a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/humour\/no-babies-no-cry-airplane-journeys\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">three-hour flight<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with my five-month-old and was constantly stared at by a member of the cabin crew while breastfeeding. I stared back at him, to tell him leching wasn\u2019t okay, but he\u2019d be gone a few minutes and then be back again. Another time, at a restaurant, I took a corner seat at the table and started to breastfeed my cranky one-year-old only to realise several eyes were on me. But these incidents didn\u2019t deter me; I went on to breastfeed in autos, at airports, at <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/outdoors\/travel-tourism-indians-travellers-international-trips\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">vacations abroad<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. My conviction was simple: Baby hungry, baby gets food.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When did India, a primarily breastfeeding-friendly nation, get so coy? When did we begin to attach shame with it? <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a child, I remember my aunt breastfeeding her younger one while chatting away with her relatives. My sister nursed like a badass, be it on long drives or at the movies. In fact, the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/medcraveonline.com\/JPNC\/JPNC-02-00096.php\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vedas state<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that \u201cthe milk and the breast are symbols of longevity\u201d. Even ancient Ayurveda texts like Charak Samhita (400-200 BC) illustrate the importance of breastfeeding and believe \u201cbreast milk to have vivifying power\u201d. <\/span>\n<blockquote class=\"quote--center\">Nowadays I find Indian mothers being asked to move to the bathroom to feed their babies in restaurants or being told off by aunties because \u201cBhartiya sanskaar\u201d.<\/blockquote>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last I checked, breastfeeding was perfectly normal in our culture that otherwise advocates modesty for women. Possibly because we celebrate and eulogise <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/bollywood\/bollywood-mothers-day-farida-jalal-ratna-pathak-shah\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">motherhood<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to such an extent that we\u2019ve completely denuded an exposed breast of all sexuality. And in this respect, we\u2019re miles ahead of the most powerful country in the world. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">America made <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/it-is-now-legal-to-breastfeed-in-public-in-all-50-states-just-now-in-2018\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">breastfeeding in public legal<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in all 50 states only this year. The country has been historically hostile to mothers nursing in public \u2013 especially since corporate interests are aligned in opposition to it. A <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140-6736(16)00210-5\/fulltext\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">study in The Lancet<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> found that breastfeeding can prevent 8,00,000 child deaths a year across the globe and yield $300 billion in savings from reduced healthcare costs. But it didn\u2019t stop the US from <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/07\/08\/health\/world-health-breastfeeding-ecuador-trump.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">opposing a resolution<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that encourages breastfeeding at the United Nations-affiliated World Health Assembly in May this year.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We seem to have borrowed the worst of their traits. Nowadays I find Indian mothers being asked to move to the bathroom to feed their babies in restaurants or being told off by aunties because \u201cBhartiya sanskaar\u201d. In 2018, a man filed a writ petition against <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/trending\/trending-in-india\/malayalam-actress-gilu-joseph-breastfeeds-in-an-iconic-bold-magazine-grihalakshmi-cover-shoot-5081291\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Malayalam magazine Grihalakshmi<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that put a nursing mother on its cover. He called the image \u201cobscene, insulting to women and in violation of child rights\u201d. A few others lodged complaints against the model \u2013 who was unmarried and not a mother \u2013 for posing on the cover. What gives? At least the Kerala High Court acted like a badass, when it <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/kerala-high-court-on-plea-against-breastfeeding-woman-on-magazine-cover-as-the-beauty-lies-in-the-beholders-eye-so-does-obscenity-5227571\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">slammed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the case, declaring that \u201cshocking one\u2019s morals\u201d is an \u201celusive concept\u201d, and that \u201cone man\u2019s vulgarity is another man\u2019s lyric.\u201d <\/span>\n\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-37877\" src=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1533627242.jpg\" alt=\"Breastfeeding\" width=\"520\" height=\"652\" \/>\n<figcaption>\n<p>In 2018, a man filed a writ petition against Malayalam magazine Grihalakshmi that put a nursing mother on its cover.<p>\n<p>Mangalore Today<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is this pinhead coyness or voyeurism an urban problem? I routinely find women labourers and vegetable sellers breastfeeding in the middle of noisy markets without inviting any stares. It is only in places we might term as uppity, like parks, malls, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/grub\/hipster-restaurant-food-ambience\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">restaurants<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that I see new mothers being dissed or sermonised for breastfeeding in public.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Turns out, this transformation has something to do with commercialisation. \u201cThe advent of formula manufacturers slowly and steadily made breast milk take backstage,\u201d says Adhunika Prakash, the founder of Breastfeeding Support for Indian Mothers (BSIM), a 80k strong community on Facebook. \u201cYears of marketing convinced the previous generation that formula is just as healthy as breast milk. They went to the extent of saying that breast milk wasn\u2019t enough. Further, as more mothers started working, the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/bpni.org\/protecting-breastfeeding\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">gimmick<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of formula feed picked up momentum.\u201d<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, it\u2019s ironic to witness this recoil to breastfeeding, when breasts could not be more sexualised or ubiquitous in the media that we consume. We\u2019ll happily devour visuals of a \u201cChikni Chameli\u201d but find a mother\u2019s exposed breast obscene. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That said, it\u2019s important to hang on anyway. Facebook forums like BSIM are Zen communities where women read each other\u2019s stories, learn and draw strength from them. Taking a leaf out of Kerala High Court\u2019s book that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/kerala-high-court-on-plea-against-breastfeeding-woman-on-magazine-cover-as-the-beauty-lies-in-the-beholders-eye-so-does-obscenity-5227571\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dismissed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the pathetic writ petition, women too need to dismiss naysayers and requests to feed their baby uncomfortably inside some bathroom. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Leilani Rogers, photographer and founder of Public Breastfeeding Awareness Project says, \u201cThe more we see women breastfeeding, the sooner it will get normalised.\u201d It\u2019s a little disheartening to have to repeat this in a country that hasn\u2019t really had a problem with breastfeeding. \u00a0<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Breastfeeding was perfectly normal in our culture that otherwise advocates modesty for women. Possibly because we celebrate and eulogise motherhood to such an extent that we\u2019ve completely denuded an exposed breast of all sexuality. So what\u2019s with our newfound coyness around breastfeeding?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":3110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[6092,6093,6094,19,6077,6095,6096],"class_list":["post-3107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gender","tag-breast-feeding","tag-breastfeeding-in-public","tag-feeding","tag-india","tag-public","tag-values","tag-vulgarity"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>When Did India Become Ashamed About Breastfeeding in Public?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Breastfeeding was perfectly normal in our culture that otherwise advocates modesty for women. 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So what\u2019s with our newfound coyness around breastfeeding?","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Runa Mukherjee","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3107#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3107"},"author":{"name":"Runa Mukherjee","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/7e8caf10ff16f801f33cc477c5324276"},"headline":"When Did India Become Ashamed About Breastfeeding in Public?","datePublished":"2016-06-28T10:33:45+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-17T14:53:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3107"},"wordCount":1116,"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3107#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1533626700.gif","keywords":["Breast Feeding","Breastfeeding in Public","Feeding","India","public","Values","Vulgarity"],"articleSection":["Gender"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3107","url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3107","name":"When Did India Become Ashamed About Breastfeeding in Public?","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3107#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3107#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1533626700.gif","datePublished":"2016-06-28T10:33:45+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-17T14:53:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/7e8caf10ff16f801f33cc477c5324276"},"description":"Breastfeeding was perfectly normal in our culture that otherwise advocates modesty for women. Possibly because we celebrate and eulogise motherhood to such an extent that we\u2019ve completely denuded an exposed breast of all sexuality. So what\u2019s with our newfound coyness around breastfeeding?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3107#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3107"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3107#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1533626700.gif","contentUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1533626700.gif","width":1200,"height":671},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3107#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"When Did India Become Ashamed About Breastfeeding in Public?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website","url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/","name":"Arr\u00e9","description":"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/7e8caf10ff16f801f33cc477c5324276","name":"Runa Mukherjee","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/699478a00536678a67ee6e508ba4c112f4b83d932244348d32866d3deedd7b15?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/699478a00536678a67ee6e508ba4c112f4b83d932244348d32866d3deedd7b15?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/699478a00536678a67ee6e508ba4c112f4b83d932244348d32866d3deedd7b15?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Runa Mukherjee"},"url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?author=160"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1533626700.gif","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3109,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3107\/revisions\/3109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}