diff --git a/py/webnotes/db.py b/py/webnotes/db.py
index adcd3ca09d..4b070da8e9 100644
--- a/py/webnotes/db.py
+++ b/py/webnotes/db.py
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ class Database:
 		"""
 		      Connect to a database
 		"""
-		self._conn = MySQLdb.connect(user=self.user, host=self.host, passwd=self.password)
+		self._conn = MySQLdb.connect(user=self.user, host=self.host, passwd=self.password, use_unicode=True)
 		self._conn.set_character_set('utf8')
 
 		self._cursor = self._conn.cursor()