Bhubaneswar : Humara Bachpan Trust (HBT), in partnership with WRI India, convened a landmark civic event titled “UDDIPAAN – The Future is OURS! Adolescents Co-Designing Smarter Cities” at  Mayfair Convention, Bhubaneswar . The event served as a first-of-its-kind platform where adolescents directly engaged with urban authorities, policymakers, and planners to share their ideas and visions for a youth-inclusive urban future.

The event commenced with an opening address by Ms. Dharitri Patnaik, Founder Chairperson of HBT, who highlighted the organisation’s decade-long mission and values:

“Humara Bachpan Trust is committed to creating safe, healthy, and inclusive environments where children, adolescents, and women can thrive with dignity. Over the years, we have empowered young people to voice their lived realities, identify local challenges, and co-create solutions that reshape urban and rural governance from the ground up.”

Dr. Krushna Chandra Mahapatra, Hon’ble Minister, Housing & Urban Development (Chief Guest), affirmed the government’s commitment toward youth-inclusive urban development, stating:

“Adolescents are not just users of the city—they are co-creators of it. Their observations and assessments help us understand how public spaces affect health, safety, inclusion and wellbeing. He 

He further underlined the city’s evolving public space reforms and infrastructure investments such as child-friendly components in city public places, recreational infrastructure inclusive for children with disabilities and affordable housing projects for economically weaker sections.

Sj. Chanchal Rana, IAS, Commissioner-cum-Vice Chairman, BMC & BDA, emphasized adolescent involvement in urban governance:

“Children are honest opinion-givers. When they are prioritised in planning and design, it naturally leads to holistic development for people across diverse age groups. We must acknowledge adolescents not only as beneficiaries—but as co-designers and civic participants. Their experiences provide insights that no planning document can produce by itself.”

He reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to integrating adolescent-led assessments and the PSAF tool into ward-level planning, sanitation audits, pedestrian-friendly street design, maintenance of public amenities, and budget-linked implementation channels.

The event culminated with the release of the White Paper “Reimagining Cities with & for Adolescents”, which proposes frameworks to integrate adolescent-responsive planning into AMRUT 2.0, PMAY-U, SBM-U, Smart Cities Mission and the CDP-2040 vision.

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