Denying children playtime causes irreparable physical, mental damage

Excessive pressure of studies, lack of playgrounds and a perceived insecurity of the outdoors deny children the opportunity to play in the capital, according to findings of a study disseminated in the capital yesterday.

The findings were presented at a discussion tiled “Children's right to play in Dhaka city” organised jointly by The Daily Star and Save the Children at The Daily Star Centre. The study, conducted with 300 children and as many parents of 600 households from Kalyanpur slum, Dhanmondi, Dhaka University residential area and Mirpur, was led by Salma Akhter, a sociology professor of Dhaka University.

According to the findings, girls play less outdoors than boys in fear of insecurity, and parents worry about the possibility of their girls being sexually harassed.

“Denying children the opportunity to play causes irreparable physical and mental damage [to them],” said Laila Khondkar, director of Save the Children. “And for play opportunities to be in place, it does not necessarily require heavy physical resources but a favourable mindset of adults.”

The study, sponsored by Save the Children Bangladesh, found that 80 percent children considered that they could play outside, had open space been available in their neighbourhood.

Ishrat Islam, a professor of urban and regional planning at Buet, said the available playgrounds in the capital are neither sufficient, nor accessible or conducive for children.

The available city parks and playgrounds are not children-friendly particularly for girls, who are subjected to sexual harassment and verbal abuse in open playfields, said Meftahun Nahar Ful, a member of Child Parliament, an adolescents' platform. 

Ahnaf Anam Arko, researcher at child rights forum National Children's Task Force, said most of city's playfields are plagued with commercial activities and pestering of drug addicts.

Iqbal Habib, joint secretary of Bapa, said there are many public playgrounds in the capital like Dhanmondi road-8 playground that are off-limits to children.

With the city children suffering due to shortage of adequate playgrounds, the abandoned Tejgaon airport, four times the Suhrawardy Uddyan, should be opened as a free public space, he said.

Prof Adil Mohammed Khan, general secretary of Bangladesh Institute of Planners, said five public playgrounds in Dhanmondi are all exclusively occupied by different clubs denying public access. Despite a High Court verdict in its favour, the government failed to recover the Dhanmondi road-8 playground, he said.

Md Ashraful Islam, project director of Dhaka city's Detailed Area Plan revision, said they would incorporate citizens' recommendations for playgrounds in the upcoming revised plan.