The first-ever initiative to make a constituency child-friendly was launched here on Wednesday by Khandapara MlA Anubhav Pattnaik.
Child-Friendly Constituency, an initiative of Nayagarh district administration with the support of the UNICEF and NGO Youth for Social Development, allows communities within the constituency to proactively engage with their elected representatives and service providers on issues that concern them.
Nayagarh Collector Hemanta Kumar Padhi and UNICEF Chief Yumi Bae joined the event as guests in the presence of over 300 participants including BDOs from Khandapara and Bhapur blocks, line department officials and people’s representatives from the Khandapara Constituency.
The initiative aims at creating a platform for elected representatives for more structured engagement on programme implementation in tandem with district administration and
service providers. The elected representatives cutting across party lines led by the elected member of the Assembly collectively take responsibility to discuss, design, guide and monitor programme implementation with active involvement of multiple stakeholders in a phased manner.
The initiative will
cover 40 gram panchayats and one NAC in the Khandapara constituency. Five Government-sponsored child development programmes have been prioritised for this initiative. The five priorities are reduction of neonatal deaths, reduction of stunting, reduction of open defecation, enrollment of all children in school and learning institutes and protection of children from violence and exploitation.