Beijing: An NGO in China posted a picture on social media of a mother breastfeeding her child on the Beijing subway and blamed her of "exposing sexual organs in public areas", drawing public ire and forcing it to apologise.
The picture posted on Friday showed the mother breastfeeding her child in a subway car with a caption saying that the mother should mind her behaviour and not expose her sexual organs in a public area.
Hundreds of net users reposted the picture and more than 40,000 participated in the discussion of whether it is proper for mothers to breastfeed their children in public.
Some net users criticised the NGO for not respecting the mother and some contended that a mother should be able to feed her child whenever and wherever he or she is hungry.
The NGO later explained in its apology that it believes that mothers should breastfeed with a cover if conditions are suitable and that otherwise mothers should try to face away from others when breastfeeding their children.
"We apologise for posting (the picture) 'Breast-feeding in Beijing subway' and its social impact. We are not against but respect breastfeeding...The purpose of posting the picture is to call for a discussion of whether it is proper to breastfeed in public without any cover," Beijing-based NGO BJtale wrote on its Sina Weibo.
"Hey, mother, is it proper for you to do this? Or should I remind you that you are taking the subway in Beijing, not the bus in your village," read the post, which was later deleted, a report in state-run Global Times said.
China still lacks public facilities for mothers to nurse their infants, in spite of flash mobs held in some Chinese cities to draw awareness to breastfeeding.
The NGO - a grass-roots organisation that has set up several welfare activities had deleted all the posts as of the press time and its last post said that it has closed the Sina Weibo account to think over its mistake.
