Kochi Municipal Corporation and Cochin Smart Mission Limited (CSML) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Friday with World Resources Institute-India (WRI India), to scale up efforts to ready safe, accessible, green, and inclusive neighbourhoods for young children and families across the city.
Kochi was in January announced as one of the 10 winners of the Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge (NNC) hosted by the Smart Cities Mission of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, in collaboration with the Bernard van Leer Foundation and with WRI India as the technical partner.
The challenge aims to support city agencies and their partners in adopting an early childhood development focus in design, planning, and management of cities, to improve public spaces, mobility, neighbourhood planning, access to services, and also ensure data management to enhance the health and wellbeing of young children and their caregivers. Kochi, along with the nine other selected cities, is now proceeding into the second phase of the challenge, which involves scaling up interventions over the next two years.
Additionally, neighbourhood-level residual spaces will be reclaimed and transformed into family friendly intimate spaces.
The opportunity under NNC will take ahead the dream to create recreational spaces for every child in Kochi, at walking distance from their homes, said Shanavas S., CEO of CSML.
