25 cities selected for Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge

The Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry announced the names of the 25 cities selected for the Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge under the Smart Cities Mission.

Context

• The Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry announced the names of the 25 cities selected for the Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge under the Smart Cities Mission.

What is Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge?

• The Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge is a 3-year initiative.
• It is hosted by the Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, in collaboration with the Bernard van Leer Foundation and WRI India.
• Aim: The Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge aims to incorporate a focus on early childhood development (0-5-year-old children) in the planning and management of Indian cities.

Objectives of initiative

• The Challenge enables Indian cities to adopt an early childhood lens in designing neighborhood-level improvements that promote the health and well-being of young children and their caregivers.
• The initiative will focus on working with Indian cities and their partners
  • To improve public space, mobility, neighborhood planning, access to early childhood services and amenities, and data management across city agencies.
  • To build a platform for peer-to-peer learning and sharing best practices between cities.

25 Listed cities

• 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.
• The shortlisted cities would carry out projects for making early childhood-friendly neighborhoods.