Children deprived of playground for months

A school ground in Faridpur Sadar upazila remains inaccessible for children and locals since March, when a weeks-long trade fair was held on the premises.

Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), in collaboration with Green Event Management, organised 'BSCIC Industrial Trade Fair' in the playground of Mahim Institute, located in Goalchamat area of the upazila.

The fair opened on March 14 with 85 stalls, with the original plan of running it until April 13. But the organisers had to close it down on March 29 due to Covid-19 restrictions.

However, after all the participants vacated the stalls, most parts of the playground is still strewn with an array of debris and construction materials including bricks, bamboo structures and furniture discarded from the stalls.

The 400-foot long and 320-foot wide school ground of Mahim Institute is the only decent playground where children and youth from surrounding areas come to play various outdoor sports such as cricket and football. A good number of health conscious locals, especially the elderly, gather at the ground for physical exercise and morning walks.

Now, with the facility unusable for over two months, children and youth in the area are gradually getting addicted to video games on different electronic gadgets.  

Badhan Malo, a seventh-grader at Mahim Institute, seemed quite upset over the situation. He said, "I can't play in the playground; there's no place near my house where I can play. So, we're spending time mostly playing video games on the internet."

Fahim Islam, another student of the same class at the school, said, "A few days before the fair started, older boys in the area made a cricket pitch for us there. But the fair organisers damaged the pitch. We have to make a new pitch again when the playground reopens."

Sobharampur area resident Sanjoy Kumar Saha said such an essential playground should never have been used to hold any fair. "Due to the situation, the children in the area have become video game addicts."  

Headmaster Obaidur Rahman of Mahim Institute said he had to allow the fair in the school ground after he received a written directive in this regard from the deputy commissioner of Faridpur. 

Besides, "the deputy general manager (DGM) of BSCIC had assured me of clearing up the field as soon as the fair was over," he added.

Contacted, Sirajul Islam, manager of Green Event Management, said they had been facing setbacks after the owner of the firm contracted Covid-19.

"I hope we'll able to remove all materials within a week," he also said.

BSCIC DGM Golam Hafeez said he already communicated the situation with the event organising firm "and they [the firm] made an assurance of vacating the playground within this month".