Bhubaneswar, July 15: A community mapping process involving slum dwellers has begun at Shantipalli Basti in ward No. 34 to make youngsters socially smart.

The process will be carried out at the Bhubaneswar Town Centre District - the smart district of the city where the area-based development will be implemented.

The community mapping (Community Resilience Analysis and Action) will involve profile mapping of the people living in the slum and mapping as well as assessment of their basic requirement and needs. Once this is done, the authorities, while implementing the smart city initiative for slums, will find it convenient to address issues that are to be dealt with both in short-term and long-term basis.

Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) and the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, in collaboration with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), have been implementing a project to make the youth and women of the Bhubaneswar Town Centre District socially smart and make the society safer for women and the youth.

Humara Bachpan is the implementing partner in this project, which would later be scaled up to the city level, outside the smart district area. Humara Bachpan aims to incorporate the views of children in the urban planning and development process. It is a process in which children map their communities in terms of identifying the issues, analysing and prioritising those and coming with solutions for creating their dream neighbourhood.

Mayor Ananya Narayan Jena said: "Issues such as illegal sale of liquor, unemployment of youths, plight of domestic workers, high dropout rates, women feeling uncomfortable while walking through the slum areas, linking women self-help groups to the market, inadequate number of potable water connections points, defunct community toilets, unclean drains and insufficient number of dustbins were the major topics of discussion."

However, experts present at the community mapping initiative also pointed out that the community needed to play an active role for better implementation of ideas such as the safety of women.

A three-day sensitisation workshop is being held for 26 adolescent boys as peer leaders from eight slums, at Centre for Youth and Social Development under the Socially Smart Bhubaneswar initiative in order to make the boys and youth more sensible towards the various issues in the slums.

Earlier, a group of girls were given training under the same format and the girls were designated as "pragati sathi". The boys will also be known as "pragati sathi", because they will also be the agents of change at their respective slums.