BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to connect youths with the social development processes in the City, the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) has planned a series of programmes in coordination with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The initiative, in which National Social Service volunteers will be appointed as nodal officer for over 50 educational institutions in the City, will gather momentum from first week of March.
State Head of UNFPA Dr Deepa Prasad said the 'Youth Connect' programme will be covered under three themes - Safe campus, safe city, better lifestyle and youth against discrimination and violence against women. "Students in colleges will be sensitised through films, documentaries and videos. They will be taught on how to develop a sense of respect and responsibility towards girls and women to make their campuses safer and free from gender-bias will be highlighted,” Prasad said.
Youth connect is a component of the ‘Citizens Connect Programme’ of the city administration aimed at channelising the youthful creativity, enthusiasm and energy in making the City socially smart.
Besides, safety audit of the campus, formation of internal complaints committees for sexual harassment and reporting of the cases relating to violence against women in educational institutions will be prioritised under the programme.
The ‘Citizen Connect’ activity will be taken up in the City on March 8 as the day is celebrated as the International Women’s Day, Prasad added.
An orientation workshop for ‘Youth Connect’ was organised for the NSS Programme officers by the BSCL and UNFPA in partnership with the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation here on Tuesday.
GM (Operations) BSCL Binay Kumar Dash said, apart from the IT and infrastructure-based interventions, the social factor also relates to the success stories, as human resource development and skilling are crucial to holistic development of an urban area.
Apart from the educational institutions, the initiative will focus on youths in the slums and particularly girls and women who remain vulnerable in society despite hordes of development initiatives, Dash added.
He informed about initiatives of BSCL, including GPS tracking of city buses, transport application, common payment card system, digitization of the parking space management and central command
control system for all city-based operations or Integrated City Operations Management Centre with the state-of-the-art IT-based applications.