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Bengaluru, one of the top ten cities under the Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge transformed ECD facilities to become young children-friendly public spaces and is working to develop capacity building framework for agencies across the State.
Going further, as part of Nurturing Neighbourhoods 2.0, Bengaluru aims to develop a network of thriving, inclusive, and resilient public spaces across the city by redeveloping parks and schools and fostering greater access to public spaces at the neighbourhood level.
Bengaluru has developed waiting spaces with play opportunities in healthcare facilities, in consultation with visitors, to ensure the convenience of caregivers. Comfortable waiting spaces with adjoining play spaces, and amenities such as drinking water pointsand toilets have been added. The city is replicating such interventions across multiple health care facilities in the city.
The pocket park offers diverse play opportunities for young children in dense government housing quarters. It has enabled caregivers to spend more time outdoors with their children, fostering a sense of belonging within the community.
Revamping of the primary school premises in Ulsoor with play and 30 Anganwadis with basic amenities such as child-height wash basins, drinking water points, ramps with safe railing and play areas has encouraged independent usage by young children and increased their time spent in outdoor play.
The city created a public plaza by reclaiming space along a busy traffic intersection at Hudson Circle and revamping it with play opportunities and shaded seating clusters. This has provided a safe waiting space for people along the entry to iconic Cubbonpark and adjacent bus stops.
This section highlights the efforts taken by cities to mainstream and institutionalise the young children and caregiver-friendly design approach through policies, financial commitments, and standardisation of processes.
Capacity Building and trainings have been conducted for multi-sectoral stakeholders throughout the life cycle of the flagship projects in Bengaluru to enhance technical knowledge of officials and frontline workers and enable them to integrate the young children and caregiver-friendly lens through an informed data-driven and guided design approach coupled with supportive actions taken towards early childhood development and social and behaviour change communication across different projects.
