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Indore, one of the top ten cities under the Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge is enhancing the blue-green network of the city by scaling a network of 500+ neighbourhood parks and gardens, through programs such as Ahilya van (urban forests) and Umang Vatika (all abilities’ park).
Going further, as part of Nurturing Neighbourhoods 2.0, Indore aims to mainstream young children and caregiver’s wellbeing by implementing flagship parks and Anganwadi projects across the city and building a supportive early childhood and caregiver centric ecosystem through dedicated trainings and community campaigns.
A flood prone open space, centrally located within the neighbourhood of Sanskriti Nagar, has been revitalized through a nature-based approach creating a young children-friendly public space. This has resulted in reduced flooding and has transformed this open space to be an extended play space for Anganwadi children and an outdoor space for the community.
An underutilized open space in a vulnerable neighbourhood of Prem Nagar in Indore was reimagined to create a public space for children through temporal interventions. The process enabled the community to rethink about their surroundings and enabled them to transform such spaces for their children and various age groups.
One of the major shopping street at Scheme 78 in Indore was reimagined as a people-oriented street with shaded seating spaces, safe walkways, playful elements such as grass mounds, lighting and signages. This street has also emerged as a favorite morning walk destination for the local community.
Indore has repurposed a city transport bus into a Play Bus called ‘ Jigyasa Rath’ aimed towards helping young children inneighbourhoods with lack of direct access to Anganwadis and play spaces. It will also act as an extension to Anganwadis which have lack ofstimulating play and learning opportunities.
Umang Vatika is the initiative by Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) and Indore Smart City Development Limited (ISCDL) to scale nature based all ages parks in Indore. This is the first park that was implemented with this concept including a variety of nature-based play opportunities designed for young children and caregivers. Accessibility features like tactile paving and hand railings make the park inclusive and user-friendly for all. Key attractions include a sandpit, stepping logs, unstructured play, climbing ropes, free play areas, a sensory trail, water features, a butterfly zone, and themed gardens like herb, rose and glow gardens - all of which support sensory and cognitive development. It also serves as a wellness space for parents and caregivers, offering areas for yoga, open gym, and walking tracks. Caregiver-specific amenities such as a feeding room and drinking water facility further enhance comfort.
Going beyond implementation, there is a need to instil a sense of belonging towards these spaces, enabling people to overcome behavioural barriers and utilize these spaces to their complete potential. Activating these spaces through regular programming of events can help to sustain continuous usage of public spaces by target user groups i.e. caregivers and young children, and foster community led support systems for caregivers. At Vigyan Nagar, regular activation events were conducted to target observed behaviours such as lack of father’s participation in caregiving and lack of parent-child interaction. Activities such as storytelling, nature-based art, and sensory play have transformed the park into a vibrant public space for young children and their parents and is slowly encouraging more parent-child interactions.
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Indore set up a carpentry workshop, allocating dedicated funds under the annual municipal budget to upcycle excess local wood to developage-specific, customized play equipment for public spaces. This has enabled them to adopt a sustainable model to mitigate the challenge of meeting expenses.
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The Women and Child Development Department (WCD), Indore, has successfully institutionalized Early Childhood Development (ECD) training within its operations. A formal notification was issued directing CDPOs and Supervisors to integrate these sessions into their regular monthly meetings. Furthermore, Anganwadi Teachers have been mandated to extend this training to the community during home visits, Mangal Diwas, and vaccination days.
- Capacity Building and training have been conducted for engineers and contractors from the Garden department, Indore Municipal Corporation and Indore Development Authority in playground safety training and on integrating guidelines for public space design to understand safety standards, audit techniques and young children centric public spaces. This capacity building effort supports officials in accessing public play spaces, building a better system to regularly inspect and improve parks, and ensuring safety for all young children.
- Early Childhood Development (ECD) training was conducted for Assistant Director, Program Coordinator, Child Development Project Officers, Block Coordinators, and Supervisors from the Women and Child Development Department on key themes of Parental Wellbeing, Responsive Caregiving, and the Importance of Play. These trainings will enable supervisors in integrating and demonstrating discussions on parental wellbeing, father engagement, responsive caregiving and importance of outdoor play to Anganwadi teachers during monthly meetings.
- Social Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) training for Program Coordinator, Block Coordinator, and Supervisors from the Women and Child Development Department. This training will help participants to understand the importance of the role they play in the ecosystem and how they can strengthen and support Parental Wellbeing and Early Childhood Development.
