New Delhi: Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre (TRIP-C), IIT Delhi and HumanQind conducted three workshops for parents and kids of three schools in Delhi to raise awareness about the impact of extreme heat, particularly on women and discuss co-creation of possible solutions.

43 parents and 55 children participated in the workshops, which are part of an ongoing project "Gendered Approaches for Addressing Adaptation Capacity to Hot Weather Conditions," funded by UKAid through the High Volume Transport (HVT) programme.

Before these workshops, the team from IIT Delhi collected data through repeated surveys with the parents of three schools between March 2024 and May 2024.

Sharing key findings from the project, Dr. Deepty Jain, Project Coordinator and Assistant Professor at Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre, IIT Delhi discussed how women travel more during the daytime when the temperatures are the highest, and with lesser abilities and limited access to resources, their exposure while travelling remains very high.

The workshops organised from 5^th - 8^th October 2024 helped to engage with the community to define solutions to address the challenges posed by rising temperatures on commuters, especially women and children in Delhi.

“The workshop sessions were designed to help parents and children explore the challenges they face while walking and various strategies to reduce their exposure to high temperatures on the streets. The strategies ranged from provisioning temporary shades, greening streets, provisioning safe drinking water systems, and carrying umbrellas and water bottles”, said Dr. Deepty Jain, Project Coordinator and Assistant Professor at Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre, IIT Delhi.

Ruchi Varma CEO and founder of HumanQind, partner to the project, says, "No solutions are complete without communities. The workshops with the parents and children helped create a DIY 'Ambi-Kit' that covers solutions that individuals and community can take up."

Jyotsna Jha, PGT, DAV Public School, Vasant Kunj, said,"The interactive format of the workshop allowed participants to engage in hands-on activities and discussions, making it an enriching learning experience."

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