For play, kids have concrete leftovers

NEW DELHI: Seema Haldar, a Class 6 student, and her friends run towards a set of cement rings fixed firmly in the soil. They perch themselves on these and start their games. A boy, curious to make sense, of the ring bends down to peep through it. There is laughter at his antics. A careful look reveals these rings to be the remnants of manholes left behind when the authorities finished laying the drains along the main road leading to Savda Ghevra in northwest Delhi.Ironically, the detritus, now painted in pink, lies in the only space that has a semblance to a play area for children and it is optimistically called “Children’s Park” by the residents.
The Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board, in charge of development of parks and other amenities in this resettlement colony, has, despite the Delhi high court’s orders on the children’s right to play and the subsequent orders of the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights, failed to provide Savda Ghevra with any genuine play area. Single-room structures arranged in single-, double- and three-storeyed brick houses mark the dusty skyline of Savda Ghevra. While it also yearns for a hospital and a market, a palyground for children is a big need. In the 10 years since the relocation of 60,000 people from different places in the city to this colony on the outskirts, none of the spaces designated for parks have been fully developed into green areas. A visit only shows garbage laden squares protected by grey boundaries in place of the planned parks.
The kids have no option but to use the streets for their games, even if it means getting in the way of those adding rooms to their ground-floor units and others constructing more floors on their allotted plots. With cycles, carts, scooters and some cars taking up most of the narrow lanes, the children’s playtime is fraught with risks.
In the midst of the frustrating circumstances, a green drive has started to find momentum in the colony. A group of young people wants to enable the children to play and the elders to avoid the dusty expanses. Residents have been rallied to clean up two parks in B Block and one in A Block, which has been named, rather grandly, the Children’s Park, its attraction being pink concrete rings. Mohammad Shahid, a shop owner, said that the maps put out by the authorities showed this to be a “shisu vatika” (children’s park), so people “got together to clear the area and provide space for children to play”. Trees and shrubs have been planted along the boundary and inspirational messages painted on the walls. The pillars are adorned with floral designs, the handiwork, pointed out Shahid, of a daily wager who painted them voluntarily.
When TOI visited the park, a child was climbing on the lone swing there in the hot afternoon. The contentment on his face reflected his desire to play, and the so-called park is clearly an emblem of how the lack of developed playgrounds has deprived the children in Savda Ghevra of their right to the joys of childhood.