May 12: Indian Museum has lined up the perfect Mother's Day gift for its visitors - a lactation room where mothers can feed their babies in comfort and privacy.

The 10ftX12ft room situated to the left of the courtyard will be thrown open on Sunday May 14, Mother's Day.

The Mother and Child Room, as it will be called, is the brainchild of Jayanta Sengupta, the director of Indian Museum, and his team. A room that earlier housed a shop has been revamped for the purpose.

"We have observed over several months that the absence of any private space in the museum is a cause of inconvenience for mothers who visit the museum with infants. We felt the need to have a discreet space for them to nurse their babies. And Mother's Day seemed the apt occasion to introduce this facility," Sengupta said.

Most international museums such as British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum and National Gallery in London, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington and Field Museum in Chicago boast similar facilities.

"A lactation room is a necessity. Some female members of our staff have been approached by visitors enquiring about a private space for breastfeeding. There are lactation rooms in most museums in the US but in India, ours is definitely the first museum with the facility," Sengupta said.

The lactation room at Indian Museum will have a female attendant on duty. It will be equipped with comfortable chairs and benches and should be able to accommodate five mothers at a time. With a curtain to guard the door, the room will offer much-needed privacy to nursing mothers.

The facility, though, has been designed keeping visitors, and not museum staff, in mind. "Unlike in the West, new mothers in India rarely take babies to the workplace. Also, the employees have the advantage of using any discreet corner of the museum but such spaces may not be accessible to visitors," the museum director said.

Sayan Bhattacharya, the education officer of the museum, hoped the initiative would ensure "not just a memorable but a comfortable visit to the museum" for lactating mothers. "It is our way of showing respect," he said. The Mother and Child Room will be open during museum hours.