Status of children in urban India The National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), a premier institute for research, capacity building and dissemination of knowledge in the urban sector in India, has partnered with Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF), a private grant making foundation based in the Netherlands, to build Child Friendly Smart Cities (CFSC) in India within the urban agenda of building smart cities. The goal of this initiative is to mainstream the needs of children in the urban policy and planning framework of Indian cities.
This document has been created by the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) under its initiative, ‘Child-friendly Smart Cities’ (CFSC), with the aim of providing a reliable information base about children in the urban context in India. This research study serves as a one-point reference, which informs on the status of children and brings together elements of quantitative and qualitative inquiry to the understanding of children’s status in urban India. This is an updated second edition of this Baseline, made more comprehensive by including additional data on young children (0–6 years), their needs and issues being distinct from other age groups.