While tutoring children in making these maps, NGO cliims they make their "Dream Aspirational" (Sic!) map

Every kid likes to draw. But in India, young people living in slums are using their sketching skills to spur urban change.

As part of a broader civic campaign centered on "child clubs," groups of children are creating detailed "social maps" of their marginalized neighborhoods to voice their concerns about public space, as first reported in Citiscope, a CityLab partner site.

Since 2011, UNICEF has been encouraging kids to use mobile technology and open data to map environmental and health issues near their homes. But that technology isn't available to everyone. Instead, much of the child-led mapping campaign sweeping India today relies on old-school topography materials—paper and a rainbow-spectrum of markers.

Regardless of whether these child maps lead to more equitable urban development or not, it's indicative of a young Indian generation coming to the fore with a keen awareness (Sic!) of disparity—who are eager to correct it.