As the nation celebrates  breastfeeding week from August 1 to August 7, the Bihar Government has conceived a noble method to highlight the importance of breastfeeding. It has decided to rope in eunuchs to propagate the concept of breastfeeding, which is on a decline.

A brainchild of Social Welfare Department Secretary Vijay Prakash, the idea is being given final shape before it is enforced across the State. “Eunuchs will be asked to visit families of new-born children and encourage their mothers to breastfeed the child,” the Secretary told Deccan Herald.

Expressing concern over the decline of breastfeeding by modern-day women, Prakash said it was essential for the growth of children as colostrums found in mother’s milk are secreted during the first hour after delivery of the child. “To have a sound immune system, it is necessary that the child be breastfed,” he averred.

Ruing over the fact that only four per cent of mothers breastfeed their newly-born during the first hour, UNICEF official Job Zachariah said, the infant mortality rate could be reduced if the children were breastfed within the first hour of delivery.

To help promote breastfeeding, the Bihar Government is now mulling over the proposal to rope in eunuchs. “If required, we will even pay them. We are working on the modalities,” added the Welfare Secretary.

This is not the first time that the  services of eunuchs are being utilised. Earlier, the cash-strapped Patna Municipal Corporation, after having exhausted all means to shore up its revenues, had roped in eunuchs to send troupes of singers and dancers to collect holding tax from habitual defaulters. The ‘persuasive skills’ of eunuchs bore fruit with the civic body earning Rs 1.5 lakh on the first day of the experiment.