Hyderabad: A one-day workshop on ‘building child-friendly cities’ in Telangana was organised by the Centre for Economic and Social Studies and UNICEF in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
The gathering aimed at creating a platform to share insights and learning of diverse agencies engaged in working with children in cities to help build a better protective environment for child-friendly cities in Telangana.
It also focused on identifying issues and concerns related to good health and the overall well-being of children in cities.
Former chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Dr Shantha Sinha, while speaking at the event said “Spaces are not merely geographic in nature, they carry an ethos, of memories, of history, of culture, of memories, of life, lived and childhood cherished.”
Dr Sinha further stated, “This concept is destroyed in the face of the development of cities. They are losing their child-friendly nature and leaving the children with little to carry by way of a legacy.”
She highlighted the fact that schools which had a thousand plus students, now have not more than a few hundred students while corporate and expensive institutions which offer but a marginal scope for recreation, and moral and life sciences education were filling up year after year.
Hyderabad-UNICEF’s Child Protection Specialist, Sonykutty George, said child-friendly cities were those which recognize the availability of services for the urban poor children.
He stressed that the CFCs should create dignifying space for children for governance, promoting child protection-related interventions with active child participation.
Participants representing NGOs, civil Society Networks, teachers from schools, ChildLine 1098 representatives, District Child Protection Officers, counsellors, child psychologists and architects were attendees at the event.
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