A large number of children and adolescents live in urban areas of India. Urbanisation is occurring rapidly, and in the next 25 years, around 50% of India’s population will live in urban areas of the total urban population, 27.2% are children. There are 8.1 million children aged 0-6 years living in slums. Among the total urban children population, 28.5% (36.6 million) are in the age group of 0-5 years, followed by 48.5% (62.2 million) in the 6-14 years age group, and 23.1% (29.6 million) in the 15-18 years age group.
In a recent post-budget webinar1, the Prime Minister emphasised the need to consider children’s needs in urban planning. He expressed concern about the lack of spaces for play, recreation, and cycling. Independent mobility is crucial for safe and child-friendly urban planning. Research has shown a decline in children’s independent mobility in different countries, including India. Another challenge faced by children in urban India is the lack of urban green spaces for play and recreation. The rapid and haphazard increase in the built environment has contributed to the shrinking of these spaces. Efforts have been made by the government, think-tanks, and academia to address child-friendly needs in urban planning, including programs such as Child-Friendly Smart Cities, Infant Toddlers Caregiver-Friendly Neighbourhood, and a focus on parks and playgrounds in AMRUT. However, children’s participation and perspective are often missing in the design and planning process. There is a need to educate children about city planning and involve them in a creative and effective manner. This will empower them to shape their neighbourhoods, wards, and cities, thereby impacting their overall well-being, growth, and development.
For example, in a Brazilian town called Tirol, Minecraft is utilised as a means to engage children in urban planning, fostering their involvement and educational understanding (de Andrade, et al., 2020). It is crucial to equip these children with the necessary knowledge about this subject, as it directly impacts their formative years. This preparation empowers them to actively discuss and debate what benefits their own well- being, growth, and overall development when it comes to shaping their neighbourhood, ward, or city. (566)
Exhibit 1: Different stages of pilot from designing module to its dissemination
About the Initiative
‘Children Reshaping Cities: Building Awareness on City Planning and Sustainable Urban Development for Children’ is a joint initiative of Save the Children India2 (also known as Bal Raksha Bharat) and Cities Forum3. This pilot project was implemented in Delhi and Patna. The initiative aims to impart learning to children on city planning and sustainable urban development in order to build their agency to actively participate in development of spaces that they live in.
There is a need to educate children about sustainable urban development and city planning because they are a part of a vulnerable section and cannot often voice their opinions on matters that concern them. It is important to inform them about their role as a key stakeholder in shaping the future of their cities. They can present fresh and innovative ideas. Moreover, if children are taught to empathise with the needs of others it might also shape their creative thinking process to be more sensitive towards them. It is often said – ‘A city designed for children is a city designed for all’; this includes the differently-abled, the elderly, parents with toddlers and strollers and others.
Approach and Methodology
The project began with a detailed review of the existing curriculum (NCERT and SCERT). Various topics that are related to urban planning can be found but are scattered in different subjects across different grades. The module took cognisance of what is available, and what is required, to be added for better understanding of the present-day learning requirements. It also included the activities which children can relate to in their day-to-day urban life. Before drafting the module, teachers and urban experts were consulted for their opinion on the importance of this initiative and on the design of the module.
A consultation was organised with children to understand what and how they would like to learn. Children also suggested that the medium of teaching be in Hindi and English. A draft module ‘Learning Mind Mapping and Urban Elements’ was prepared which includes the concept of urban design formulated by Kevin Lynch. In the project, workshops were organised in Delhi and Patna to orient the teachers and to resolve any queries. Their inputs were also incorporated in the module. The module was taught in eight government schools in Delhi and Patna. After the completion of the module, exhibitions were organised to showcase children’s work and ideas. Here, teachers, principals, school management committee (SMC) members, parents, ward councillors, police, scientists participated and appreciated the efforts, and gave their feedback. (402)
About the Module
The module was titled ‘Learning Mind Mapping and Urban Elements’ and was accompanied by a Lesson Plan for teachers’ reference to teach the module in a participatory manner to the children. There were four sections in the module viz. knowing neighbourhood, elements of the city, understanding public and private spaces, and neighbourhood creation (Exhibit 2). (58)
Section-1 had two activities for children to discuss their city and neighbourhood and it also defined a city, a ward, and a neighbourhood, and also deliberated on different types of urban settlements categorised on the basis of population (i.e., town, city, metropolitan and megacity). After discussing the key concepts, the section-2, introduced the elements of urban design as framed by Kevin Lynch in his book ‘Image of the City’. It also contained a mapping exercise to familiarise children with their neighbourhood and identifying the paths, nodes, landmarks, edges and districts in the map drawn by them in the activity under section-1. The chapter ended with a story about Ravi navigating his neighbourhood. Following the mapping exercise, in section-3 children were informed about differentiating between private and public spaces and marking the same on their journey map. Lastly, the section-4 began with Sunita’s journey to her school and the problems/issues that she faced. Students were taught to empathise with her situation and write a letter to the concerned local authorities for the resolution. Following on from this, the children identified issues within their own neighbourhood along with their ideal neighbourhood. They were also encouraged to write a letter to their local authorities to resolve their concerns.
The module was designed considering following aspects –
- to make the topics and activities relatable to their daily lives;
- to make use of participatory and interactive tools such as maps, models, posters, videos, letter writing, skits, etc. as suggested by the children;
- to complement the existing ‘chapter design’ of their textbooks which included activities, stories, quiz, etc.;
- to make use of simple diagrams, sketches, colourful pictures for easy comprehension; and to engage children to do hands-on activities which enabled them to visualise their neighbourhood e.g., mapping their journey from home to school and back and interpreting the land use individually and discussing it in a group work
The module concluded with organisation of exhibition by the children about the challenges and solutions in their neighbourhood which they had completed along with the activity (1.8) i.e., the neighbourhood they want, and activity (1.9) i.e., writing a letter to the concerned local authority for improvements. The modules are designed for three groups i.e., 4th to 5th class; upper primary, and senior secondary. It also included a ‘Lesson Plan’ for teachers to help them disseminate the same in a simple and participatory manner. (400)
Pilot implementation
This project was piloted in Delhi and Patna city from May to December, 2022. In Delhi, the program was implemented mainly across classes 3rd to 5th taught by one teacher and supervised by a principal.
In Patna the program was implemented across classes 4th to 10th and was taught under the subject of social studies and science. Nearly 450 children participated in Delhi while around 200 children participated in Patna. The exhibitions in Delhi were held in November separately for each school while for Patna the exhibitions were held individually for all three schools and a joint exhibition of all three schools was organised in the month of September. The teachers were supported by the project coordinators for a smooth completion of the module, related activities, and organisation of exhibitions. (129)
Findings
In both the cities, there was a significant improvement in the understanding and knowledge of children, regarding different terms and aspects related to urban planning (Table 1 and 2). (29)
The grade-wise analysis also revealed that the majority of the students (from grade 4 to 10), had not heard about urban or city planning before the dissemination of the module. But after discussing the module, the majority of the children knew about it. (Figure 1). Previously, nearly three-fourth of the children (from grade 4 to 10) didn’t know who planned their cities, while after the completion of the module almost all students knew the answer. Although some students of the higher grades reported that they knew the difference between a city, a ward and a neighbourhood, it wasn’t the case for younger students. However, it changed after the completion of the module where almost all the students could differentiate between these three terms. Learnings and changes the children would like to see in their surroundings.
Table 1: Before and after learning assessment of children from Delhi
The project also reached out to children for their qualitative feedback on their experience of learning and participating in the module dissemination. When they were asked about the key takeaways from the module, girls and boys shared the following learnings:
- They felt encouraged to be a part of planning and development of their neighbourhood especially for issues concerning them,
- They could raise their voices about local issues,
- They knew what an ideal neighbourhood should look like,
- They could differentiate between public and private spaces,
- They were aware about elements of urban design,
- They knew the importance of pedestrian infrastructure, especially for children,
They also discussed the learnings from the module with their parents/friends/ siblings with following areas of discussion: cleanliness, water-logging, green energy, safety in public spaces, access to health facilities, pollution, etc. All of the interviewed children liked the design and structure of the module.
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The most commonly expressed changes that the children would like to see in their surroundings and their city were:
- More green spaces
- Safer roads for walking
- Safe public spaces for children
- Safer streets and playgrounds for girls
- Safer public transport for children and women
- Reduction in crime
- Clean and safe drinking water
- Higher adoption of green energy
- Easily accessible healthcare facilities
- Clean cities and neighbourhoods
- More awareness among children about their role in urban planning/ development
The changes suggested by them are the key intervention areas for the government at all the levels (National, State and City) and also for the global frameworks such as SDGs, New Urban Agenda, Paris Agreement, etc. Thus, it will be a win-win situation for the policy makers and local authorities to take into account the voices of children while planning, designing and implementing interventions for them.
On-Ground Impact
After the completion of the module, the children at the Sawan Park MCD School, Delhi, wrote a letter to the local health officer highlighting the mosquito infestation in the nearby park and delivered it to the local sanitary inspector. The authorities took notice of the problem and promptly had the park and the locality sprayed and fogged, to rid it of the infestation, positively impacting the locality of nearly 300 households. (504)
Way Forward
The pilot has been endorsed by more than 400 children from 8 schools, 20 teachers/ headmasters, local councillors, municipal officials, parents, police, and other stakeholders. Save the Children India and Cities Forum plan to scale it to more schools. There is a need for such intervention in India and the rapidly urbanising world. It is crucial to adopt such measures in the 75th year of independence to enable our ‘engines of growth’ to shape the growth story of the country – that children be exposed to and participate in discussion for shaping their neighbourhood/city.
Their active engagement and participation will not only make them a good Samaritan but also help them to lead the urban affairs in a sustainable manner. This will ultimately help the country to achieve its development targets and make the future of its children safe and secure. (130)
Bibliography
- Francis, M., & Lorenzo, R. (2002). Seven realms of children’s participation. Journal of Environmental psychology,
22(1-2), 157-169. - Devashish Dhar and Manish Thakre, “No Child’s Play: The Enduring Challenge of Creating Child-Friendly Cities,” ORF Issue Brief No. 415, October 2020, Observer Research Foundation.
- Lahoti, S., Lahoti, A., & Saito, O. (2019). Benchmark assessment of recreational public Urban Green space provisions: A case of typical urbanizing Indian City, Nagpur.
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 44, 126424. de Andrade, B., Poplin, A., & Sousa de Sena, Í. (2020). Minecraft as a tool for engaging children in urban planning: A Case study in Tirol Town, Brazil. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 9(3), 170. - NIUA (2018) “Status of Children in Urban India, Baseline Study, 2018 (Second Edition)” Delhi, India.
- UNICEF (2018), “Shaping Urbanisation for Children; A Handbook on child-responsive urban planning”, New York, USA.
Authors:
Manish Thakre, Head Urban Programme and Policy, Save the Children India and Simranjit Singh, Associate Consultant – Transport Planning, CITIES FORUM. (Views expressed are personal.)
