Although children need recreation for healthy mental and physical development like the adults, most of the children in Dhaka city hardly get the opportunity to play and relax in absence of necessary playgrounds.
Against this backdrop, environmentalists and public health experts have said that the hectic city life needs mobile playground for the children in order to develop a vibrant and livable city. They raised the demand for area-based mobile playground in all the areas of the city.
They said that area-based mobile playground can be an effective solution for creating opportunities for children’s play and socialisation as also for building harmony among the locals.
The environmentalists and public health experts expressed their views at the inaugural ceremony of an area-based mobile playground for children in Soikat Housing area at Mina House Goli of Rayerbazar in the city on Thursday (February 24).
With the aim of creating opportunities for sport and socialization, the authorities of Ward No 34 of Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), Work for a Better Bangladesh (WBB) Trust, Greater West Zafarabad House Owners Association and Carfree Cities Alliance Bangladesh jointly took the initiative.
The mobile playground will be organised every Thursday from 3.00 pm to 5.00 pm in the area through various activities like painting, handicraft, socialisation, chess-ludu-carom-rope jump-badminton.
Sheikh Mohammad Hossain Khokon, councillor of DNCC’s Ward No 34, formally inaugurated the mobile playground in the ward area as the chief guest, with Md Murshed Alam Swapan, president of Greater West Zafarabad House Owners Association, in the chair.
Ziaur Rahman, senior project officer of WBB Trust; MA Mannan Manir, headmaster of Dhaka Ideal Cadet School and Makbul Hossain, finance secretary of Greater West Zafarabad House Owners Association also spoke on the occasion, among others.
The speakers said that it is possible to have a positive impact on the physical and mental health of children and adolescents by creating sports and leisure time for the elderly, and creating opportunities for area-based socialisation.
They also said that there are not enough playgrounds and parks in Dhaka city. It brings a negative impact on physical and mental health. However, it is not possible for the city corporation to build adequate fields and parks quickly. Against this backdrop, it is possible to build area-based sports and socialization space in every ward of the city at very low-cost and in a small space, they added.
According to a survey of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK), there are no playgrounds or parks in the areas of 37 wards out of the 129 wards of the two city corporations in the capital.
Sheikh Mohammad Hossain Khokon said that children, women, and the elderly would benefit if opportunities for sports and socialisation are created for a certain period of time by organising mobile playground in unused or underused place. If such activities are organised in every ward, the city dwellers will benefit and a vibrant and livable city will be developed, he added.
The DNCC councillor expressed his determination to take initiative to organize two more mobile playgrounds in the area.
