Authorities unconcerned as children lose playgrounds in Dhaka

A bunch of kids were playing football on a street in the capital's Eskaton Garden area on Friday evening when a car loudly honked. The driver angrily gestured at the 7-9-year-olds to move their small makeshift goal post from the street. The annoyed children complied and resumed their play after the car passed.

Yasin Haque, one of the boys in the play, told The Business Standard that they had nowhere to play. "So, on holidays, as there is less traffic on the road, friends get together and play football on the streets." 

There is no playground anywhere around our house and no opportunity to play on the school grounds as it is too small, Yasin added.

This was not a scattered scene but a regular sight in the capital where children are forced to take to the streets to play facing scorn of drivers and pedestrians. 

In the two city corporations of Dhaka, 41 of the 129 wards have no playground, according to Rajuk's Detailed Area Plan 2022-2035. 

Besides, most of the playgrounds that exist are either owned by private clubs, or are closed for development.

Although development works of several fields have been completed, most have been converted into parks and the children of those areas do not always have the opportunity to use the fields.

Dhaka has only 235 playgrounds and parks against a required 2,400, according to a research by the Bangladesh Institute of Planners.

Of the existing ones, only 42 are open to the public, 16 are illegally occupied, 141 are used by different institutions, 12 are used as prayer grounds and 24 are under different housing colonies.

Dhaka's two city corporations have only 1.8% of playgrounds that can be used, the study revealed.

According to Rajuk, 40% of Dhaka city's population is children. 

Importance of play

Tahmina Begum, a parent in the Agargaon area, told TBS that her 14-year-old child spends most of the day in front of mobile screens because there are no outdoor sports facilities and no playgrounds around. 

"Already my son needs glasses and has many diseases due to no physical activities," she said. 

"We fail to give our kids a child-friendly environment. Where will my child play?" she asked.

Dr Helal Uddin Ahmed, associate professor of Child, Adolescent, and Family Psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health told TBS that children acquire social skills along with their mental development when they play with in groups.

"When children do not play in the field with their friends, their social development is hindered and their interest increases in mobile or computer, which makes them socially isolated," the professor mentioned.  

This also causes mental issues for children when they have no physical activities, the mental health expert said.

Moreover, the risk of non-communicable diseases increases for children who do engage in physical activities, said Helal Uddin.

Need for playgrounds

Considering the area of Dhaka, playgrounds should account for 1,876 acres of area of the city. 

The detailed area plan of Dhaka also proposes to have one two-acre playground against every 12,500 people in the city.

The city corporation officials said they have completed around 55 parks and playgrounds under two separate projects and opened them to the public.

The per capita green space in Dhaka in 1995 was 0.5 square metre, as per Rajuk's Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP). But it decreased to only 0.052 sq m in 2009, as per a DAP review.

Besides, out of 342 government primary schools in the capital, 252 have no playground, according to the report titled 'Annual Primary School Census-21' of the Directorate of Primary Education.

According to the directorate's latest report based on 2021 data, there are 65,566 government primary schools in the country, out of which 10,740 have no playgrounds.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina drew special attention to the issue last year and gave instructions to the authorities concerned to take necessary measures to build playgrounds for the physical and mental development of children.

Adil Mohammad Khan, executive director at the Institute for Planning and Development (IPD) told TBS that most fields in Dhaka are either occupied or inaccessible in the name of development. 

The city corporation leases the ground or fences the playground in the name of maintenance, which it is not supposed to do, he said.

The planner also said the city corporation must make sure that playgrounds are taken care of and are open for all to play.