Can’t make children pay for unchecked growth
gests that the space being taken away be compensated with another children’s park close by. The South Delhi Municipal Corporation says it will give additional green space in front of the market. “But what if this turns out to be another of those landscaped gardens of Defence Colony where entry of children is banned,” asks Kohli.
Landscaped or ornamental gardens are a big pull in Delhi. Out of 13,915 parks maintained by the three municipalities, only 684 are for children and 6,528 are ornamental parks. Here, municipalities and resident welfare associations jealously guard fountains, tiled walkways and fancy plants against trespassing children.
Since last year, Defence Colony resident Rajeev Suri has petitioned the high court twice alleging that children’s parks in the neighbourhood were being converted into ornamental parks and multi-level parking, in violation of the ‘right to play’. Last Friday, the court asked the municipal corporation: “So you are converting parks into parking lots. That is what Delhi is fit for now… where will children go to play?”
Delhi, the metro with the highest child population in India, should have long made child-friendliness a priority. Yet, open spaces and playgrounds are considered vacant land that could be better used to accommodate cars, build garbage stations, install power transformers or erect sprawling tents for weddings.
Among the 10 instances where the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights rescued public playgrounds in 2015-16, a garbage dump was removed from a park in the walled city, swings that were chained and locked by residents to prevent children from playing were unlocked in Mayur Vihar, and commercial dairies, with a large number of cows, were removed from a municipal garden in Nangloi.
Delhi clearly needs a policy that balances its infrastructural demands with mandatory provisions for playgrounds in every neighbourhood. Even the most crammed public places can be cleared up and made suitable for free play. A study by Delhi-based urban designer Sudeshna Chatterjee showed that children played as many as 34 games in an unkempt park in South Delhi’s Khirki Extension as opposed to only 16 games in the park that had a “well-maintained landscape and no license for children to manipulate the environment”.
Also, the authorities and resident associations need to strike the right balance. Many parks shut out children because their games can hurt old people using the space. For this, as Suri suggested in his petition, a minimum of 25% of the park acreage can be kept for active sports where children can play without restraint. The rest could be used as a shared community asset.
Watching the children play with total abandon, grandfather Kohli considers different priorities. “But can it really be an either/or situation,” he says.
Indeed, having already turned our river and air toxic, we may well bring up our young ones in a wasteland if Delhi makes playgrounds expendable under our watch.
OPEN SPACES AND PLAYGROUNDS ARE CONSIDERED VACANT LAND THAT COULD BE BETTER USED TO PARK CARS, OR ERECT SPRAWLING TENTS