Chennai: Although we live in the 21st century and witness programmes to empower women, support from workplaces for new mothers still remains a challenge.

A woman working in a construction site goes behind a secluded wall to breastfeed her child, returns in 10 minutes and continues to offload bricks. It is not by choice that women work even after their delivery, but their financial status drives them to continue as in the case of the construction site woman worker.

“We do not have infrastructural facilities to breastfeed babies; in fact, I have not seen any mother carrying her child to the workplace,” said Shenba, a 31-year-old, techie working with a leading company.

For now, Shenba expresses milk and the caretakers feed the child the stored milk when she is away working.

It is a situation that many working mothers come across and, sadly, most of the workplaces are not breastfeeding-friendly. Only a fraction of women like Shenba express and store the milk, while the rest of the lot choose formula milk that is not as rich as the natural source is.

Only a handful of IT companies come up with initiatives for the welfare of mothers who wish to continue working. The scenario is the same in government offices, too.

A government employee said, “We do not have any facilities to care for the child and the mother goes on maternity leave if she wishes to.”

Umasree Raghunath, a techie-cum-writer, tells of one such programme that is being practised in one of the well-known IT firms in the country. “As part of the initiative, the company provides ‘work-from-home’ option to women soon after delivery and provides resources to take care of the child.”

Saying this, the writer also agrees that it is not the case in all companies. “There is a dearth of facilities and there is a need for a facility to breastfeed the child. Additionally, mothers should be permitted to take a break to feed the child,” added Umasree.