Nurturing Neighborhood Challenge

In News

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs selected 25 cities on 18th February for the ‘Nurturing Neighborhood Challenge’ cohort, in alliance with the Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF) and technical partner World Resources Institute (WRI) India under the smart cities mission.

About

This challenge was launched on 4th November, 2020. This challenge is a 3 year initiative with main focus at supporting early childhood friendly neighborhood. The neighborhood level pilot project is proposed in public space, mobility, and access to services to augment the physical and psychological health of young children and their caregivers.

According to the Ministry out of 63 applications submitted all across India only 25 cities were shortlisted for the challenge. The selected cities will get technical assistance, capacity building and expand the support to experiment, and implement trials and pilots over the next six months to exhibit early wins, seek citizen participation, and build harmony around their proposals.

Significance

The urban structure and city planning play very important role in the early years (0-5 years) of child’s development.

This challenge will promote inclusive development of all the weaker section of the urban area with main focus on young children.

The challenge is in accordance with the ITCN (Infant, Toddler, Caregiver- Friendly Neighborhoods) of the Smart Cities Mission that has five objectives- A neighborhood should be- Safe, Playful, Accessible, Inclusive and Green.

Smart Cities Mission (SCM)

The Smart Cities Mission is an innovative and new initiative by the Government of India to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local development and harnessing technology as a means to create smart outcomes for citizens.

The objective is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of 'Smart' Solutions with focus on sustainable and inclusive development and the idea is to look at compact areas, create a replicable model which will act like a light house to other aspiring cities.

The Strategy of SCM

• Pan-city initiative in which at least one Smart Solution is applied city-wide
• Develop areas step-by-step – three models of area-based developments
• Retrofitting,
• Redevelopment,
• Greenfield

The Core areas

• Adequate water supply,
• Assured electricity supply,
• Sanitation, including solid waste management,
• Efficient urban mobility and public transport,
• Affordable housing, especially for the poor,
• Robust IT connectivity and digitalization,
• Good governance, especially e-Governance and citizen participation,
• Sustainable environment,
• Safety and security of citizens, particularly women, children and the elderly, and
• Health and education.

It is a centrally sponsored scheme that aimed to cover 100 cities whose duration was of five years from FY2015-16 to FY2019-20. The mission may continue only after an evaluation done by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.