Divya Disha’s Child Leaders and Child Journalists attended Cities4Kids-Urban95 [#] , a two day international conference held on February 2 and 3, at Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi, India. The goal of the was to deepen the understanding of sustainable urban development, keeping young children in the center of planning and design.
Divya Disha Participates in Cities4Kids17
Six children – Kanchigalla Swetha, Katta Pallavi, Malka Srinivas, Mamidi Krishna, Kallavala Jyothi and
Paradesi Harsha Sri – trained to be Child Leaders/ Child Journalists by Divya Disha attended the conference.
The conference was organized by the Bernard van Leer Foundation and Confederation of Indian Industry with support from National Institute of Urban Affairs and Humara Bachpan Campaign.
The conference brought together children, parliamentarians, municipality representatives, academic experts, policy makers, civil society organizations, bi-lateral organizations and private sector leaders to debate and understand synergies and challenges in the developing of child-friendly cities.
Day 1
Children’s voices in creating Child Friendly Cities
On 1st February, 2017, the children participated in the workshop on Children’s voices in creating Child Friendly Cities.
Group Discussion 1
As part of this workshop children were divided into city-wise groups to discuss : Are our cities meant for the children? Divya Disha’s Child Leaders discussed the issues in slums in Hyderabad. They made a pictorial representation of their discussion.
Group Discussion 2
The children were divided into groups, with each group being given a topic for discussion :
• Child Friendly Open Space / Play ground
• Child Friendly Mobility
• Child Friendly Housing
• Child Friendly Services / Anganwadi Centre
• Role and Responsibilities for Community parents and government to make cities Child Friendly.
The groups made 3D model based on their discussion. Each group selected one leader to make a presentation the next day.
All the groups made a 3D model for the related topics. Each group had a speaker who would give presentation the next day.
Day 2
Presentations were given on 2nd February, 2017 during the Children’s plenary sessions.
Pallavi, a Child Leader from Divya Disha spoke on the topic Role and Responsibilities for Community parents and government to make cities Child Friendly during the Children’s Voice session.
These are the main points from Pallavi’s talk.
- The Government should ensure that facilities like schools, hospitals should be close to the slum
- They should regularly listen to the voices of children
- The Government should always be supportive of children,
- A specific budget for creating child friendly cities should exist
- Designs, planning and management of cities should be based on children’s perspectives
- Every Government office should have a suggestion box to get suggestions for child friendly cities.
The children attended all the other sessions, actively listening to the talks and taking notes.
