Amit Chopra's three children mostly play indoors. The only time they get to run in a park or climb the jungle gym is when their parents take them to Cubbon Park for an occasional weekend outing. The Chopras have been living in Nagarathpet — one of the densely populated Pete areas in the city — for over 25 years. “There is no other option for us. With congested and dusty roads, we can’t even allow our children to play on the streets,” said Mr. Chopra.
While he is able to make the occasion trip to Cubbon Park with his children, many other families, especially from the low income groups living in the Pete area, have no access to open space, parks or playgrounds. The lack of open space is not limited to the old neighbourhoods of Bengaluru.
According to urban experts, more than half of the city's population does not have access to open spaces, which includes parks and playgrounds. “In peri-urban and old city areas, a generation has been forced to live without access to open spaces. Those from the vulnerable and marginalised communities are the worst affected. This is because the debate around open spaces, park and playgrounds has been hijacked by the elite. So much so that whatever little open spaces are there in the city have become an undemocratic space, which exclude those who need it the most: children from low income groups,” said Leo Saldana, coordinator, Environment Support Group.
According to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) figures, the city has 1,484 parks and 192 playgrounds. Non-profit organisation Janaagraha, in its report on parks and playgrounds in the city released in December last year, said the city had 19 sq.km. of open spaces, which is just 2.2 sq.m. of open space per capita, falling way short of the 10 sq.m. of open space per capita recommended by the Urban and Regional Development Plan Formulation and Implementation (2015) guidelines. Even in the draft Revised Master Plan 2031, there is hardly any mention of expansion of open spaces in the city and the outer areas.
Locked parks
Another problem with the city parks is that most of them are locked and inaccessible for a good part of the day. While the BBMP, residents’ welfare associations and private parties, which maintain the parks, claim that this is done for maintenance and security reasons, experts say it leads to future exclusion of people. More often than not, parks remain closed between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Kshitij Urs from the Forum for Urban Governance and Commons, a network of citizens, said, “The Bangalore Agenda Task Force had brought in the concept of making all utilities self-sufficient in terms of resources needed to maintain them. This was blindly adopted by the BBMP for its open spaces as well. Thus came the idea of locking parks and outsourcing their maintenance. This has led to the exclusion of people and has made parks, which is a common property, relinquish their commonality.”
The manner in which the parks are developed is also questionable, he argued. “Parks, instead of being a place for playing, have turned into horticulture spaces with landscaped gardens and swanky walkways. There is no space for children to run around,” said Mr. Urs.
Shailaja R., resident of Basaveshwaranagar, is forced to take her walks on roads because the BBMP park in Sharada Colony closes by 10 a.m. “I can only get out of the house after my children go to school. But the park closes by the time I can step out. Again in the evening, my children are back and I cannot leave the house. I understand that security is an issue, but the BBMP could have taken steps to keep the park open at least till 12 p.m.,” she said.
Gangadhar Swamy, Deputy Director, Horticulture, BBMP, said that the civic body is looking at extending timings of parks by at least two hours in the morning. “The parks are closed for maintenance in the afternoon. At night, security is a major issue. But we are now looking at extending timings in the morning for the benefit of people,” he said.
However, structural changes are need needed to make the city more inclusive for everyone, said experts. The city planners need to take a bottom-up approach instead of a top-down approach while planning for the future, they said.
