Our cities are increasingly becoming the sites where children socialize, observe, and learn how society
functions and many local and global activities have impacted children’s health and well-being.
The Child-friendly Cities initiative, launched by the United Nations Children’s Fund and the
United Nations Human Settlements Programme in 1996, draws in diverse stakeholders to place
children at the center of the urban agenda. Based on social work research, this article analyzes the
acclaimed status of Biratnagar Sub-metropolitan city, Eastern Nepal, as a child-friendly city.
Despite its efforts, the city of Biratnagar is yet to meet the required criteria to claim itself as a childfriendly
city. Further improvements by the city administration in achieving children’s participation
in decision-making, child-friendly legal environment, and code of conduct are essential. Based on
the evidence, the authors advocate for bottom-up approaches that include children’s voices and
their real participation in city governance and a strong political will to craft child-friendly cities,
not as a policy rhetoric but for real. Enabling children to fulfill their potential as equal participants
in crafting child-friendly cities will require adults to relinquish some of their hegemonic powers of
decision-making on behalf of children.