SHABIHA NUR KHATOON, OP
To wean kids away from gadgets and kill their boredom, the capital city’s municipal authorities are trying to include new and innovative play equipment in different parks to entice children to spend time outdoors
There is no denying the fact that the advent of modern technology has transformed human life and these changes have had a strong impact on the lives of children as they spend less and less time playing outdoors. Considering the importance of play in a child’s development and their future life, it is important to provide them with opportunities to play in a good environment. The type, quality, and diversity of children’s physical and social setting directly affect the type, quality and diversity of children’s play.
Without a good range of play opportunities, children may lose the chance to develop their physical and social skills, emotional intelligence, independence, self-esteem and self-confidence. Park is considered one of the favourite places where children’s can enjoy to their fullest.
Bhubaneswar is known as ‘The City of Temples’, no doubt about it; but it is also home to many beautiful recreational parks that are immensely popular amongst the city-dwellers and tourists alike as each park provides a leisurely retreat for the young and old. They also offer an opportunity to connect with nature and culture.
In Bhubaneswar, there are around 70 parks out of which 60 come under the Bhubaneswar Development Authority and the rest is taken care by Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. Most parks have children’s corners and there are also a few in the city which are only for kids like the Sishu Vihar children’s park in Unit-II and K8 Park in Kalinga Nagar.
The city is now under the smart city mission programme and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) and in both the programmes, green space development is given due importance.
The parks, which come under AMRUT are Madhusudan Nagar Park, Surya Nagar (Mamtaj alli) park, Jharapada colony park stage-5, Satya Nagar Park, Chandrasekharpur OSHB Colony, Chandrasekharpur BDA Colony, GGP colony Rasulgarh, Sailashree Vihar Ph-VII, Kanan Vihar Ph-II and many more.
Visit any park in the evening, the one thing which will be a common sight there is the corner filled with the fun, frolic and laughter of the little ones.
Senior citizens and parents usually take a stroll on the walking track while the children play; or they sit on the seats near the children’s corner and keep a watch on their kids.
Talking to Sunday POST, Ashokananda Dhar, chief horticulturalist, BDA, says: “Today you visit any area you will find a park, irrespective of the area – it can be big or small. Our main objective is to provide the facility to kids; unless and until we provide the benefits it is not proper to talk about maintenance and betterment. The different play equipment are designed to enhance children’s health, learning and social emotion. Outdoor kids equipment are slide, swing, see-saw, rocker, spring rider, multi activity play station, merry-go round, thrillers, climber, playground scrambler, pyramid scrambler, and many more. These are the standard gaming equipment available in most parks.
“We are also planning for a kid’s library section in the park where we will try to add different story books which the kids would be delighted to read. There won’t be any sitting arrangements. With the kid’s library we are also thinking of including storytelling activities. Most kids these days download a particular story from the internet and prefer to read it either on computer or phone, but with storytelling activities we are trying to develop the communicative skills of children which are not possible with electronic gadgets.”
Dhar adds: “With limited open spaces in the city, parents find it difficult to involve their kids in playing outdoors. For example, some mothers find it tough when their toddlers don’t get enough space to ride a tricycle. We are trying to have a toddler sector, where toddlers can have fun and the effort to create a children’s corner in all the neighbourhood parks is our prime motive.”
Dhar says that each type of playground equipment is designed for special specific activities. For example the slide is for the purpose of sliding down from a higher place. Now the variety of outdoor playground equipment is increasing. We can see many kinds of slide differing in form that provide for different ways of sliding. But there is another important factor besides the original intention of the equipment design.
Talking about their new initiative the BDA chief horticulturalist informs that the residents of Nayapalli N-5 area will soon have a full-fledged park. The construction of the park has already started as there were complaints from the locals that they don’t have any park. The authority plans to have an Open Air Gym equipment which has received loved from people of all age groups and it also plans to increase the height of the boundary wall by adding iron grills above the existing wall.
Taking a step further towards smart city mission, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority, Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation are developing three parks in the city as ‘Smart Parks’ as part of the Smart City initiative. These ‘Smart Parks’ will be incorporated with child-friendly and social landscape features, as well as technological features such as Water ATMs, Wi-Fi and Informative variable signage systems, to connect the local communities with the open spaces in the city.
The parks shall be universally inclusive for all, and promoted as learning and recreational centres, with features like children’s play area, e-toilets, splash parks, open gyms, watchtowers, butterfly parks, sensory gardens and a half-basketball court.
The initial parks chosen as part of the ‘Smart Park’ initiative are three parks in the Sahid Nagar area, namely the park district near Bhawani Mall (amalgamation of four small parks), BDA-OMC Park and a small community garden near Sparsh Hospital. The construction is under progress and the project is expected to conclude in the next three months.
Akshya Kumar Pattanaik, deputy conservator of forests, forests HQRS, Bhubaneswar, is of the opinion that people visit park for relaxation and enjoyment.
“In 2006, there were only 22 parks in Bhubaneswar but the number has increased today with physical and mental fitness being considered increasingly important. There was a time when children used to play in their villages and neighbourhoods, especially in the streets and lanes near their homes, but due to concrete buildings everywhere and study stress, this habit seems to be deteriorating; kids are not getting enough space to play and in every park there is a children’s section so that kids can play with their friends while their parents can keep a watch on them and also relax,” he says.
PVR Subudhi, assistant engineer, BDA says: “As we all know, a park is an open area specifically designed to enable children to play. Modern playgrounds often have recreational equipment such as the seesaw, merry-go-round, swing set, slide, jungle gym (also called monkey bars or climbing frame). The equipment helps children to develop physical coordination, strength, and flexibility, and provide recreation and enjoyment and supporting social and emotional development. But soon we are also planning to have a section called puzzle-play for kids which will boost their mental strength.”
Rain shelters are increasingly common these days, popping up everywhere. The assistant engineer informs that soon they are planning to install rain shelters in the park that will help visitors protect themselves from wind, dust or rain.
Everyone has the right to spend time in the lap of nature so why would the physically handicapped people stay behind; they too have the right to enjoy. So taking it as a matter of concern the authorities are considering every possibility to make parks accessible for the physically challenged.
