Street survey by school students in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: School students divided in two groups walked on the footpath of Rajpath in the city noting down facilities available for pedestrians or the lack of it.

The first-of-its-kid initiative was conducted recently as part of the street audit by the children with the help of planners and architects of Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and Bhubaneswar Urban Knowledge Centre.

In line with the internationally acclaimed ‘Urban95 principle’, the children were persuaded to look at the infrastructure and facilities from the perspective of a four-year-old kid.

A BDA official said the move was to understand the issue from childrens’ perspective, as Bhubaneswar envisages to transform itself into a child-friendly Smart City. “The main objective of conducting such audits and surveys with kids is to develop thinking ability of the Generation Next, understand their point of view and involve kids as the prime stakeholders in the overall process of city development and planning,” he said.

Several interesting observations made by the children include the need for median pedestrian crossings at every 200 metres and reducing height of median bushes to ensure clear visibility of the other side of the road for safe crossing by children.

They also suggested proper placement of road signages clearly identifying cycle track and footpath besides pruning trees to create clear head space over cycle track and footpath.

Prior to the nearly two hours of street audit guided and facilitated by BDA, nine children from socio-developmental organisation, Humara Bachpan, participated in the street audit. They were briefed on the overall process and how to record their observation along with suggestions to make the street safer and friendly for children.

Another batch of nine school-going children undertook a survey along with urban planners and officials of BDA to assess the child-friendliness of the neighbourhood near BDA colony in Chandrasekharpur.
They filled up the answers provided by kids of the colony on the facilities available at their home, school and neighbourhood during the survey. The idea of getting this survey done by children was to make the kids of the colony feel comfortable to share their experiences and views, the officer added.