Ensure recreation for Dhaka’s slum children

Effective planning and sustainable initiatives are needed to create playing facilities and recreational spaces for marginalised children in urban slum areas, said speakers at a dialogue yesterday.

There is an acute shortage of recreational facilities and playgrounds for children and adolescents in urban areas of Bangladesh including Dhaka.

However, the shortage of such child-friendly spaces is most acute for children in informal settlements, including slums in urban areas, they said at the dialogue held at Save the Children office in the capital.

The dialogue was jointly organised by IPD, Save The Children Bangladesh, Bhumijo and Seep.

Due to the lack of playgrounds and recreational facilities, many children who grow up in different slums of Dhaka have become involved in various crimes, they said.

With the effective involvement of development partners alongside government initiatives, it is possible to create child-friendly spaces in slum areas, they added.

Executive Director of Institute for Planning and Development Prof Adil Muhammed Khan said a plan needs to be formulated now to create at least one child-friendly area in all slum areas of Dhaka.

Prof Akter Mahmud of Jahangirnagar University said the number of playgrounds and recreational spaces for children have shrunk following implementation of various development projects in Dhaka.

Professionals involved in the design and implementation of such projects must have to take responsibility for this, he added.

Farhana Rashid, chief executive officer of Bhumijo, presented the possible design of a playground  for children in Bauniyabandh area of ​​Mirpur.

According to Maruf Hossain, UNDP's town manager, many children's playgrounds are being walled off to restrict access. The universality of the mass sphere is largely destroyed by such a design.

Mostak Hussain, director (humanitarian) of Save the Children Bangladesh, said it is only through environmentally friendly and inclusive participation that the slum area can be made sustainable.

Dhaka North City Corporation city planner Maksud Hashem stated that there have been several positive changes in the creation of public spaces in Dhaka. He added that the City Corporation is sincerely interested in creating recreational facilities and spaces for the city's marginalized children.