Mukta, the Odisha government’s urban wage employment scheme, has received global recognition after being named one of the winners of the World Resources Institute (WRI) Ross Center Prize for Cities for the fiscal year 2021-2022.
The award was also given to Barranquilla, Colombia, Iloilo City, the Philippines, Paris, France, and Peshawar, Pakistan.
On February 1, 2021, the state government’s housing and urban development department launched Mukta (Mukyamantri Karma Tatpara Abhiyan). Its goal is to provide job opportunities for poor urban residents and migrant labourers.
The scheme also aids in the equitable development of community-level civic facilities. The award winners were announced on Wednesday at an event at the Ford Foundation Centre for Social Justice in New York City.
G. Mathi Vathanan, the principal secretary of Odisha’s housing and urban development department, was in attendance to accept the award. Mukta was chosen as one of five finalist projects by an international jury in a competitive process. There were 260 projects in the running, representing 155 cities from 65 different countries.
The Prize for Cities is WRI’s urban transformation award, recognising leaders who are making cities more sustainable and inclusive around the world.
The award recognises Mukta’s innovative response to uncertainty, disruption, and crisis by creating large-scale jobs for the urban poor and informal and migrant labourers through development work as a mechanism for cities to live and thrive in turbulent times.
Citing the reason for getting the award, Vathanan said: “Till date, 7 lakh urban poor and migrant workers across Odisha’s 114 cities have been engaged in 22,500 community-level development work worth Rs 208 crore, which include paved roads, drains, rainwater harvesting, community centres, plantation, water bodies rejuvenation and public space development.”
Prasanta Patnaik