Railways to provide baby food at stations

As part of the new facility introduced by the Indian Railways — Janani Seva — mothers travelling with their infants will be able to buy essential baby food from CST and Mumbai Central stations.

The railway minister Suresh Prabhu in his budget speech announced the Janani initiative back in February as part of making long-distance travelling with infants easier for both mother and child. The minister launched the initiative across 25 stations, which include the two aforementioned from Mumbai.

“The idea for Janani came about when a mother was trying to get milk for her child and was unable to find on any of the stations that the train was halting at. When alerted, our staff had made the arrangement and so we thought that we should introduce baby foods for those mothers who are taking care of their children on trains,” said Mr Prabhu via a video-conference from Delhi.

The baby food will include hot-milk, water for the baby, as well as infant formula.

In the conference, announcing a separate facility, he also announced that the passengers would now have the option of food while booking their tickets on the August Kranti.

Commuters from Mumbai, will have the option to choose if they want meal charges to be included in their ticket price on the August Kranti. Until now commuters had no choice but to pay meal charges while booking their tickets even if they carried food from home.

“The option of choosing a meal or not is also a big development for commuters who had just enough to travel in trains and wanted to only pay for their tickets,” he further added.

Both the initiatives said the minister is to make sure that the passengers felt comfortable while travelling in trains and looked at railways as a safe and hassle-free mode of conveyance.