<span style="color: #222222;">Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri today launched Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge focusing on shaping cities for young children and their families. The challenge is conducted with the support of the Bernard van Leer Foundation, Netherlands with technical support from WRI lndia.<br />''</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Through the challenge, selected cities will receive technical assistance and capacity-building to reimagine parks and open spaces, improve access to early childhood facilities, adapt public spaces with early childhood-oriented amenities and create accessible, safe, walkable streets for young children and families. The challenge will be open to all Smart Cities, other cities with more than five lakh population, and capitals of States and Union Territories.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Speaking on the occasion, Mr Puri said, the urban environment shapes a young child's health and development, particularly in the crucial and vulnerable first five years of life. He said, by enhancing the primary public domain of young children and their families to be safer and more stimulating for early childhood, the Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge can help lay the foundation for more robust social and economic development outcomes in Indian cities for decades to come.</span><br />