Bhubaneswar: Child in Need Institute (CINI), an organisation dedicated to enhancing the well-being of vulnerable populations, particularly children, hosted a conference on ‘Making the City – Safe, Inclusive, and Gender-Sensitive for All’ in Bhubaneswar.
The event was organised on Wednesday under the Project G-SAFE+ (Generating Safe Area for Everyone, including the LGBTQIA+ Community in Eastern India) with support from Terre des Hommes, Germany.
The event aimed to create a collaborative platform for key stakeholders from government, non-government, and corporate sectors, as well as the target communities, to engage in meaningful discussions on gender-sensitive urban planning.
The plenary session, titled “Building a Visionary, Inclusive & Safe City for Children and Youth of All Genders”, focused on strategies to foster safer environments for marginalized communities, including children, adolescents, youth, and LGBTQIA+ individuals in urban slums.
The event was graced by eminent dignitaries, including Sulochana Das, Mayor, Bhubaneswar, Amritpal Kavar, Additional DCP, Santosh Swain, PD, OSACS, Meghendra Banarjee, C.O.P. CINI, Kumari Jyotsna Lenka, Child Guest and Shashwati N. Mahapatra, S.P.M. Representatives of CINI Odisha were present, along with representatives from project intervention area, govt. officials, national and international NGOs and corporates.
Discussions at the conference highlighted the urgent need for inclusive policies, community engagement, and the integration of gender-sensitive frameworks into urban development planning. The adolescent and youth from the project intervention area, showcased a spectacular dance drama promoting a sensitive, safe and equitable urban space for all gender.
CINI, with its rich experience of more than 5 decades as a renowned national level organisation dedicated to enhancing the well-being of vulnerable populations, particularly children, has been committed to this cause for over five decades. Currently the organisation is working across 7 different states including Odisha with a strong focus on ensuring that children and adolescents have access to their rights to health, nutrition, education, protection, and participation irrespective of gender or socio-economic status, CINI continues to drive meaningful social change.
