Playgrounds and open spaces are the casualties in Bengaluru’s march towards becoming an urban jungle. It’s not only neighbourhoods but also schools that are struggling to find space for children to play. Many school managements are converting basements and terraces into ‘play spaces’ for students to train in sports such as table tennis, volleyball and badminton.
According to statistics provided by the Department of Public Instruction, around 37% of the total 62,007 elementary schools do not have playgrounds. The situation is better in high schools as 13,906 out of the 15,666 schools have playgrounds. However, this takes into account not only playgrounds owned by the school but also those that managements have taken on rent or lease.
No outdoor games
With the lack of space and schools developing indoor playgrounds, students are denied an opportunity to play outdoor games, such as football, basketball and cricket. In some schools, students have no choice but to play indoor games, such as chess, carrom or scrabble, during their physical education class.
Parents are not in favour of this trend. They prefer to see their children playing in open spaces under the sun. “I prefer my child playing outside as she often hurts herself playing on cement flooring,” said Mohana Gowri, whose daughter studies in NSVK High School, which has a basement play area.
Many of the more well-endowed schools are introducing new technologies such as motion control games where players hit balls on screens, for instance, and can burn calories by playing in a small space. “Students will have to hold a bat or racquet and play games like tennis. Facing a screen, they can assess if the ball is coming towards them and engage their entire body in the process of playing the game,” said D. Shashi Kumar, General Secretary of the Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka.
BBMP grounds
Most schools depend on BBMP owned playgrounds and have drawn up a schedule/timetable.
Susan Roy Thomas, principal of St. Paul’s English School, said that her students have access to a public playground and a basement gym with slides and swings for primary and kindergarten levels. “An open terrace space is used to play games that involve less physical activity,” the principal said.
Many schools in other cities, such as Mumbai and Pune, have constructed vertical playgrounds that ensure sporting requirements are met within a single building. These can accommodate more students than regular playgrounds as they have several floors, but the trend is yet to catch on in Bengaluru.
Health practitioners favour proper playgrounds in schools. Dr. Parimala V. Thirumalesh, Lead Senior Consultant, Neonatology and Paediatrics, Aster CMI Hospital, said that activities in playgrounds help children through team-building exercises, accepting winning and losing in sports, and assists them in building friendships.
Health issues
“Modern-day health problems, like childhood obesity among children, can be easily tackled by participating in extracurricular activities in schools,” she said, adding that physical activities assist in producing endorphins, which help in regulating mood, pleasure, and pain. “It can contribute towards promoting a more positive mindset among students. Spending up to 60 minutes in sunlight can help in combating issues related to Vitamin D deficiency,” she added.
What the rules say
The Ministry for Human Resource Development in 2012 had relaxed the infrastructural requirement under the Right to Education Act, 2009, which had mandated that every school should have a playground.
In 2018, the DPI amended the Karnataka Educational Institutions (Classification, Regulation and Prescription of Curricular, etc) Rules, which states that any management that wants to start a private school should own or have a lease of the land for 30 years. As per the rules, the extent of land should be in the range of 1,000 square metres to 2,000 square metres in BBMP and other municipal corporations. However, this is applicable only for schools started from the 2018-2019 academic year and is not applicable with retrospective effect.
