Dr John Horton finds out about the everyday lives of children in India

Dr. John Horton has just returned from a trip to India as part of the ESRC-funded New Urbanisms in India research project. This major, three year project aims to explore the everyday lives of children and young people living in contexts of rapid urban development in India. John receives funding to act as mentor to the project’s Principal Investigator (Dr. Sophie Hadfield-Hill) and postdoctoral research assistant (Dr. Cristiana Zara), who are both based at the University of Birmingham.

Highlights of the trip included:

• participatory workshops with children and young people from very diverse backgrounds in and around the newly-built city of Lavasa;
• presentations and dissemination events at the National Institute of Urban Affairs (Delhi), CEPT University (Ahmedabad), and with staff and students from Universal College of Engineering (Mumbai);
• a very moving visit to the NGO Humara Bachpan (‘Our Childhood’) which supports children and families living in acute urban poverty – children led the research team on a guided walk of one of Delhi’s largest areas of slum housing;
• an inspiring visit to Riverside School in Ahmedabad – HQ of the Design for Change programme, which seeks to empower children and ‘give them an opportunity to express their own ideas for a better world and put them into action’.

Children and adults working together on a mapping project in a government school near Lavasa

It was a fantastic and fascinating trip. For more information about the New Urbanisms in India research project see http://www.new-urbanism-india.com/ 

Dr John Horton (and friends!)