Under the citizen connect programme of the Bhubaneswar Smart City plan, a workshop on “Youth Connect” was organised by the Bhubaneswar Smart City limited (BSCl) and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
In a day long programme, around 70 nodal officers comprising National Social Service (NSS) programme officers and faculty from seven universities and more than 45 colleges of Bhubaneswar participated. The participants shared a wide range of ideas and activities that can be organised in their institutions on the twin themes identified for the academic year, “Safe Campus - Safe City” and “Better life - Better Style”.
The nodal officers will engage students in their respective institutions by creating awareness and promoting collective action. Some of the activities planned include safety audit of the college campus, awareness on cybercrimes, creating a tobacco free campus, promoting gender equality, healthy habits and physical activities, steps to prevent sexual harassment, bullying and ragging. Overall, the idea is to create awareness among youths, channelize their energy to bring changes in the society, provide them platforms to share their experiences, exchange ideas and be change agents for a better urban living.
GM (Operations), BSCl Deepak Kumar Routrai and State Programme Coordinator, UNFPA Dr Deepa Prasad addressed the participants at the workshop.
The participants were informed on the plan by the city to further intensify the youth engagement by organising “City Changer labs”. The lab is aimed at providing a platform for youths to come up with creative solutions, innovative models and applications for improved urban living.