The Socially Smart Project, which is a unique attempt on the part of BMC, Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) and United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) to strengthen social components of the Smart City, has now been expanded to cover another 76 slums which are beyond the boundary of the Bhubaneswar Town Centre District (BTCD) area.
The project which was initiated in the year 2017 and was restricted to 24 slums within the areas of BTCD, has entered its third year and now these new slums have been brought out to be included into its purview of activities making it 100 slums.
The new activities in the 76 slums would start with community mapping process to be held in 16 large slums and line listing of youths in all the slums. The line listing process will help to identify the actual number of youths in the age group of 10-25 years, their family background, qualification and current social status.
It will also make an attempt to identify their training needs and aspirations, which would be in the coming days used for linking them with appropriate training opportunities.
Eighty young boys and girls of the new 76 slums would be provided nine days of training as per the module of UNFPA which will be followed by youths taking leadership at slum level to form groups and discuss issues of importance with other young children of the slums. There is a plan to train 500 girls in self defence training.
