Children in the Urban Vision of India

This document has been prepared by the “Child Friendly Smart Cities” initiative to undertake a fast track review of current urban programs being implemented in India and how they are facilitating the cities to be more focused on the needs of children. These children constitute a signifi cant part of the urban population, yet are the most underrepresented section of the demography. 

This document refl ects on four flagship missions of MoHUA: Smart Cities Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Housing for All) and Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission) and their contribution towards creating fulfi lling and nurturing urban environments and cities that can be more sensitive towards the needs of children. The rationale to look at these four missions is that all these missions are critical to the infrastructure and services being built across the country. 

The document also presents an evaluation of projects and models of implementation adopted by the fi rst 20 winning cities of the Smart Cities challenge. The evaluation comprises of
studying specifi c projects and mission guidelines that contribute towards mainstreaming the needs of children into city planning, design and development. Lastly, good practices pertaining to children have been drawn out from the projects for every mission to understand their replicability and scalability. 

Emerging best practices highlited in this document can shape the understanding of cities in India and globally in creating cities for children using innovative planning and design strategies. We hope that this document would inspire change in the current urban planning and design discourse towards a more responsible and ‘children-responsive’ urban development in India.