Union Minister of State for Urban Development Rao Inderjit Singh stressed on undertaking projects for development of children in Smart Cities while speaking at the “Cities4kids Urban95’’, an international conference, held in New Delhi recently.
He said the Child-Friendly Smart City Centre opened by the Bhubaneswar Smart City limited (BSCl) is certainly a good
effort for inclusion of children in the Smart City process.
Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and BSCl Managing Director Dr Krishan Kumar attending as panelist explained how Bhubaneswar has developed its Smart City proposal with a focus on well being of the children.
The conference on child-friendly city was organised by the Bernard van leer Foundation (BVlF) and the Confederation of Indian Industry with support of various Ministries. More than 50 kids from various cities across India and Peru shared their ideas of child-friendly city.
IBI Urban Planner and Bhubneswar Urban Knowledge Centre team leader Bankim Kalra also discussed on children’s issues pertaining to mobility in the city. BVlF representative Dharitri Patnaik gave a vote of thanks.
In 2010, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) had reported that more than 827 million people were living in slum-like conditions and about 19 per cent of the world’s children live in India. It suggested put children at the centre of planning and decision making process.
The BDA, as the first step towards the Smart City programme, opened a child friendly smart city centre on March 4, 2016, in association with National Institute of Urban Affairs and Bernard van leer Foundation.