In my boyhood I had the opportunity to swim across the now disappeared Dholaikhal and boated from Dakhhin Mousundi up to Gendaria through this wide dirty canal. The colourful boat races on the spacious canal on special national days were eye soothing to the people of all ages. Now busy Dhikosha Commercial Area along with the front side of then under construction Gulistan building and in elsewhere of the city there were ample open spaces for us to play. We the kids were at large and could roam about in the city without keeping our parents in tension. These are among the various cherished sweet memories of those old days of Dhaka life. Similar abundant play grounds were there in other cities and towns across the country. Dhaka is now the capital city of Bangladesh. Things have changed a lot by now since my arrival at Dhaka as a child of 5-6 years old in mid 1948 and departure in late 1983 to live at different Mofossil towns. By now almost all those play grounds have disappeared and/or grabbed confining the children of the cities and towns across the country in their flats and apartment houses.   

Now the residents of the cities are maintaining their families in flats or apartment houses with their children who are studying at local or distant private schools. Naturally as we were, the children become crazy to play after returning home from the schools. The schools are usually built in houses inside the localities devoid of play grounds; they also lack adequate space nearby for playing. Though in some cases there are playgrounds adjacent to the main roads or some other places the guardians do not venture to take their children to such grounds. Such play grounds are usually unhygienic in environment which restricts those taking children there. Moreover, in such places the drug users and addicts move freely. In consequence, the children spoil most of their school free time being compelled watching television and playing games in computer and smart phones. Thus due to their confined life in urban flats their world is getting monotonous and small day by day. These children do not even realise how and when they are wasting their exciting and pleasant childhood. In consequence, they are frequently being attacked by various sorts of diseases because of their prolong staying in close door houses.

Not only are the private schools of the cities, but most of the government primary schools are confined by walls. Most of such schools seem almost like prisons for the kids. Apart from classrooms and corridor there is no open space in those. Children of such schools in most of the cases, say for example of even class four or five, enjoy study but they do not feel courageous enough to go to school alone as we did in our school days. A clear cut reason for that is those schools have no playground where the children can exercise bravery. They have to stay both in the house and school in a restrained and suffocated environment. It is often seen that the private schools run their activities on a single floor of a multistoried building. As per existing government rules, no school can be established on land below 33 decimals in size. But in fact many schools are rampantly run in land scarce cities flouting the government rules. Everyone will get such experience if they choose talking to guardians and visiting different areas of the country’s cities including the capital. The children and juveniles of the country, in the meantime, fall into clutches of aggression of the easily available sky culture at home. As a result children of even three to five-year-old watches Hindi-dubbed cartoons on television throughout the day. In some of the cases though, they cannot speak Bangla properly and correctly, but they have already become fluent in speaking Hindi after watching their favorite Hindi-dubbed cartoons. This is a common allegations and experiences of most of the guardians across the country. My grand children are also of that habit.    On the contrary the way of life and the scenario of growing up of rural children are totally reverse of the urban children. It has been observed that the rural children, as they grow up in open environment filled with adequate light and fresh air and eats fresh foods, suffer from diseases less. According to the child health specialists the mental growth of the children is being obstructed because of strained relations between their parents, undue pressure of study and lack of scope for group games and sports in open play grounds. Mental growth of children is also affected by high expectations of the guardians about their children at their tender age. Especially those children, who do not get scope for games and sports in play grounds, suffer from depression. Moreover, desperate attitude is more among the children who spend time by playing video games and watching TV. Since it is often said and true that the children are the future of the nation, we need to lay stress on opening their world as wider as possible. To grow up freely and courageously the children and juveniles need open playground which is almost rare in busy cities of the country. It is regrettable that different gardens and parks of the cities across the country are on the verge of ruination because of our reluctance and ignorance.

It may be noted that due to the negligence and dishonesty of the authorities concerned about 90 percent parks of Dhaka city have gone to the possession of the grabbers. It has become very difficult to trace out the existence of 33 parks out of 47 in the capital city. Not only that, competition is underway to grab the remaining parks also. Incorporating various initiatives for flourishing the growth of mental and physical heath of the children, the Ministry of Women and Children has framed the National Child Policy 2011. The policy has given due emphasis and importance to the entertainment and cultural work of the children. The policy emphasised that in every educational institution across the country there will be playground, available supply of sports materials and their optimum use will be ensured. Although in the urban plan the policy has a provision for making it mandatory for setting up area-based children parks and keeping playgrounds for the children in all institutes and localities, the real picture is completely different in different areas of the city. The policy needs whole hearted and proper implementation for healthy growth of our future generation.  

The writer is a retired Professor of Economics, BCS General, Education Cadre