Berhampur to be made child-friendly city

A pilot project named ‘making Berhampur a child-friendly city’ will be launched in 15 slums of the city. The project will be taken up by Youth for Social Development (YSD), a social research and development organisation, with the support of Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF). According to Bibhu Prasad Sahu of YSD, the project is basically aimed at improving physical environment of children living in urban poverty in slums of Berhampur through increased sensitisation, participation, empowerment and involvement of local municipal corporation and other service providers to promote enhancement of physical environment in which the children live. The YSD has also joined hands with the ‘Humara Bachpan Campaign’ to spread the message among the masses to promote improvement of physical environment of children from poor families of the city. Mr. Sahu of YSD and Anant Prasad of ‘Humara Bachpan Campaign’ said it was high time for the Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BMC) to prioritise improvement of physical environment of children living in slums of the city. As per them, child-friendly physical environment in urban slums involved access to affordable basic health facilities, adequate sanitation, availability of clean drinking water, proper implementation of urban development policies as well as opportunity for children to have education and recreation.

The YSD activists felt the children living in slums of Berhampur are devoid of proper environment for their proper physical and mental growth. According to a study of the YSD, the city has 135 slums in which a population of around 1,17,541 live. The study also hinted that the Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BMC) did not have any specific policies or programmes for children living in these slums. There is also no budgetary provision of the BMC for the purpose. The BMC has not formed any ward committees to take public opinion regarding implementation of developmental schemes. Lack of participation meant that the urban poor did not have a choice or hold in determining their own development needs and priorities.

Source: The Hindu