The Brahmapur Children’s Federation organised 24th meeting here and discussed the situation of housing in slum areas in the city. More than 150 children participated from 30 slums and discussed their living conditions, particularly on housing situation.
Child leaders recently visited and audited the child friendliness of the ongoing construction of Rajiv Awas Yojana housing scheme. Children found in these housing projects there is hardly any child friendly components in the design and construction. last year the Brahmapur Municipal Corporation Mayor and Commissioner had promised children to incorporate child friendly components but in the construction it has not been reflected, said Smruti Kumari, a child leader from Raghupati Nagar. 20 children visited Rajiv Awas Yojana project in Amabapua and informed these problems to their local Corporator.
Among the most concerned aspects are improper ventilation to the houses, no provision for ventilation to the kitchen, no space for children’s reading and playing for young children inside the room. The total size of the houses remains 150 to 200 square feet which is very less to live and keep space for basic amenities inside the house. And the construction of these houses is going at a very slow pace and there are no provisions for transit houses during construction. Finally, the children also presented and discussed the child friendly components in Rajiv Awas Yojana and presented a memorandum to the Slum Improvement Officer and Commissioner of the BMC.
More than 30,000 houses were damaged during the cyclones in 2013 and 2014. The Central and State Governments promised to provide all slum dwellers with housing and basic amenities. The World Bank also is financing through the ‘Odisha Disaster Recovery Project’ to provide disaster resilient basic infrastructure to the slum dwellers. But unfortunately these projects are going at a very slow pace despite the Central Government’s notice for its immediate completion.
In the meeting child leaders Sruti Kumari Sahu from Raghupati Nagar, Subhasree Behera of Raghupati Nagar, Amit Das of Gaudabandha Street, K Dipu of Telegu Street, Usha Nayak of Jagabandhu Street and Arjuna Das of Old Khodasingi participated.