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Kochi, one of the top ten cities under the Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge created outdoor play spaces in 29 Anganwadis, and reclaimed and transformed public spaces in neighbourhoods to be young children and caregiver-friendly.
Going further, as part of Nurturing Neighbourhoods 2.0, Kochi envisions to bring all city agencies to work together to scale and institutionalize young children and caregiver-friendly solutions in city planning.
Kochi has carved out spaces for outdoor play areas in Anganwadis (Early Childhood Development Centre) by using residual spaces within the premises or in the immediate surroundings. This has benefitted over 100 young children, enhancing their time spent in outdoor play. The city is scaling up the initiative across 29 Anganwadis.
The community driven reclamation, with support of the Ward Councillor, of an abandoned streetside space to create door-step play opportunities has increased the footfall of the residents, especially women and has enhanced outdoor time spent by young children and caregivers in the neighbourhood.
P.J.Antony cultural ground, a 5000 sq.m underutilised public space housing 2 Anganwadis and a dementia care centre, wastransformed to create a play space and outdoor space for caregivers encouraging rest and social interaction. The site was also activated throughregular programming of activities such as storytelling and interactive sessions for caregivers further enhancing the usage of the space by youngchildren and caregivers.
Kochi is expanding on its scale-up efforts on development of young children and caregiver-centric Model Anganwadis in the Thikkakara Municipality, as community anchor spaces. The Model Anganwadis are being developed in a collaborative way with multiple stakeholders including ICDS, Municipality, Ward councillors, to serve as safe, inclusive spaces for young children to play and learn, while their parents can interact, find peer support and connection, towards their wellbeing. Model Anganwadis have been designed with a young children friendly lens incorporating a stimulation corner for children, playful “aangans” having age-specific play elements, child-heighted railings and toilet fixtures.
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.
Kochi Metro Rail Limited will be adopting a young children and caregiver friendly design for the new phase of the metro work in the city based on an audit and design recommendations formulated under the Nurturing Neighbourhoods initiative.
A dedicated budget allotted towards Anganwadi improvements in Kochi. A proposal for Model Anganwadis made under the Nurturing Neighbourhoods initiative will serve as a blueprint for scaling such Anganwadis.
Capacity Building and trainings have been conducted for multi-sectoral stakeholders throughout the life cycle of theflagship projects in Kochi to enhance technical knowledge of officials and frontline workers and enable them to integrate the young childrenand caregiver-friendly lens through an informed data-driven and guided design approach coupled with supportive actions taken towardsearly childhood development and social and behaviour change communication across different projects.
