Identifying the parameters for assessment of child-friendliness in urban neighborhoods in Indian cities

ABSTRACT

The child-friendly city concept is relatively new in India. In 1989, the United Nations endorsed a Convention on the Rights of the Child, which aimed at identifying the important services and rights for every child globally. Subsequently, several other initiatives have been undertaken by various governments at global, national, regional, and city levels, primarily focusing on providing basic services for children, such as education, health care, safety, and sanitation, thereby ensuring social equity and improved quality of life. The initiatives formulated were generic in nature, whereas their successful implementation depended upon viable policy at the micro level; that is, at the neighborhood level in an urban area. Children can be good benchmarks of a livable, healthy city. With the increased rate of urbanization, there has been a considerable decline in accessibility to play areas and recreational and community facilities, coinciding with reduced traffic safety and increased levels of criminal activity. It is thereby imperative to develop places for children within their neighborhoods that will nurture their cognitive ability and physical skills. This study therefore aims to identify the parameters that can be used for further analysis and streamlining methodology for the planning of a healthy and safe, child-friendly metropolitan neighborhood and develop a framework based on the pilot survey, based on the literature review.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rituparna Das

Rituparna Das is currently pursuing her research at Ranbir & Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Her current area of research is child-friendly urban neighborhood planning. She has previously worked in areas such as urban microclimate modeling, urban watershed management, and housing affordability.

Ankhi Banerjee

Ankhi Banerjee is currently an assistant professor at Ranbir & Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Her research interests include housing affordability, housing finance, livability and community planning, urban planning, urban design, and tourism. She has been closely associated with several projects based on smart urban regeneration; development of an index as a measure of happiness in New Town, Kolkata; and improvement of corridor-based traffic mobility. She is currently the principal investigator of a project that aims to develop an integrated housing and transportation model under the Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC).