Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge

In News- Recently, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs shortlisted  25 cities for the ‘Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge’.

About

• The first stage of the Challenge involved an open call for applications from city agencies.
• The selected cities were Agartala, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Dharamshala, Erode, Hubballi-Dharwad, Hyderabad, Indore, Jabalpur, Kakinada, Kochi, Kohima, Kota, Nagpur, Rajkot, Ranchi, Rohtak, Rourkela, Salem, Surat, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruppur, Ujjain, Vadodara, and Warangal.
• They will receive technical assistance and capacity-building to re-imagine parks and open spaces, improve access to early childhood facilities, adapt public spaces with early childhood-oriented amenities; and create accessible, safe, walkable streets for young children and families.

What is Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge?

• It is an initiative of the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) in collaboration with the Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF) and technical partner WRI India.
• It is a 3-year initiative aimed at supporting early childhood-friendly neighborhoods under the government’s Smart Cities Mission.

Significance of Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge

• It aims to address the need for early childhood amenities in government office premises, bus shelters and transit hubs.
• The Challenge has refocused attention on the importance of neighbourhood-level interventions.
• It is well-aligned with the strategy of the Smart Cities Mission to promote inclusive, people-oriented development in compact, local areas towards scaling city-wide solutions that enhance our citizens’ quality of life.
• It enables Indian cities to adopt an early childhood lens in designing neighbourhood-level improvements that promote the health and well-being of young children and their caregivers.

Source :TH