Mother: Where do you get apples from?
Child: From the refrigerator.
With rapid urbanisation over the last few decades, children's access to play has been negatively impacted. Children today are not aware of their natural surroundings - Like that sad joke in the beginning. Additionally, urbanisation has led to a reduction in safe spaces for children to explore and learn. Parks have been concretised, and nature exposure has been minimised.
Are the cities only for adults? Aren’t kids rightfully the citizens of our country too? Think about it. Are our cities child-friendly? Maybe the crime rates have gotten lower over the past few decades, but traffic, and pollution has only increased. Infrastructure deficit and hazardous environments are prevalent.
First of all, What is a child-friendly city?
Simply, put a city that is friendly for a child. But, to elaborate: “A city, town, community or any system of local governance committed to improving the lives of children within their jurisdiction by realizing their rights as articulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
A community where children have access to a safe, secure, and clean environment; quality and participatory education, skills development and employment opportunities with no discrimnation. We believe children should be allowed to be children. To experience their childhood to their fullest extent, As UNICEF points out, children must be allowed to grow, learn, play, develop and flourish with dignity.
It is a space where children’s voice are heard and their opinions are taken into consideration. One in which the decisions made are in the best interests of the child.
Second of all, why a child-friendly city?
As per a 2018 study by the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), children constitute a whopping 39% of the Indian population. Shouldn’t we ensure that this segment of the population is then properly catered to? As responsible adults who can vote, we should voice out for our lil citizens. If that’s not enough of a reason, here are more:
It is a legal obligation under UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international human rights treaty
Children are individuals and should have their own rights
Present day short-sighted policy making can impact the children who are the future of tomorrow
Tim gill, an independent scholar, and consultant on childhood, as reported by the Guardian, argues that our planning systems are developed with cars, housebuilding and the economy in the focus rather than the environment, health and quality of life. In fact, the idea of child-friendly cities has been picking up pace in other countries over years! It’s time for us to up our game.
A research by Jenny Wood involving 60 primary school children showed that the top priorities of children were as follows:
The ability to walk,
Cycle and
Socialise locally and safely.
Children favoured increasing access to and experiences in nature and increasing the amount of colour in the built environment. They also wanted good sport-faciliites and nature-education spaces.
The study also showed that children had only limited independence, and those who were driven around to places by parents struggled more to read local maps and understand how different areas connected. All children disliked pollution.
A wild space is a space for children to explore, and learn, writes Wood as she concludes, emphasizing the importance of a child-centric approach.
At Thicket Tales, we aim to create a child-friendly space as much as possible. The child is the central focus around which we work. A child-centric approach might be the one thing pending for our legislators to consider and the suitable direction for our country to head in.