Talk to any millennial kid and they will tell you how much of caning they had to undergo if they played for the duration more than what their parents had permitted. Many millennials kids had to completely give up on playing when their exams were round the corner or if it were board exams, then forget even having a life outside school. Even the schools would take those “free periods” or “sports periods” to conduct extra classes to cover the syllabus and prepare the students for exams. Sounds nostalgic? A sad one, though.
But what if I tell you that more than being a sad childhood nostalgia, it has even graver repercussions? Such triviality ascribed to playing makes children lose out on an important aspect of development. Given the kind of education system we have had and still do, which depends on rote-learning, memorizing, and cramming up the syllabus like a robot with little development in the analytical bend of mind, playing must be complemented with studies. While I am essentially talking about all children, the positive effects of sports is an indisputable fact for adults as well.
With growing urbanization and concretization, the fields are disappearing and all we are left with is a certain number of parks in our localities which are known to be unfriendly for children. Talking about Delhi itself, despite the High Court’s directive in 2015 for upholding children’s right to play in parks, nothing has changed on the ground. The agencies responsible for maintaining the parks designated for children and those parks which were not- to make it children-friendly, fared poorly in a review meeting held by the Delhi government on the implementation of the directive. They showed sheer reluctance on implementing it.
All the metropolises of India like Delhi have a similar story to tell. We see children forced to play football in dump yards or open lands mounded with garbage, cricket on the streets, flying kites on dangerous roofs or at the side of the railway tracks.
Even children from middle-income families living in gated societies are forced to play in the spaces in between parked cars until they are stopped by a grumpy ‘Uncleji’ who doesn’t want them to dent the cars or in the parks because the grasses will be ruined. Many reports have found a large number of schools not having playgrounds or having an open space in the form of lawns just for the sake of it. Many public lands are either given to the private sector or are turned to parking lots. The children are left with no room to play.
For the girl children, playing rights is another crucial issue. They have always been marginalized in the playing field and not having enough safe and child-friendly playing spaces add to their woes. However, some non-government actors are working towards gender equity in the playing fields by training them in sports and encouraging them to agitate to have their own playing fields.
As a welcome move, the draft national education policy of 2019 has proposed a reform whose implementation will have a positive impact on children’s learning which will ensure a play-based pedagogy to children up to 8 years to give them a strong foundation. Such an approach will help children acquire skills like critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, and team spirit. It will enable children to develop self-confidence and a tendency to have an interest in perpetual learning.
It is a well-established fact that playing has an all-round impact on a child’s development. Not only it makes them healthy and strong physically but for cognitive development as well. This is especially important for our country which has more than half of its population under 25 and one-third of it under 35. Notably, we also have the highest levels of malnutrition in the world and the lowest public health expenditure of 1.5% of the GDP.
This trivialized and misunderstood right to play is an inalienable right accorded to children in Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC, 1992). The Article provides for the right of a child to play, recreation, rest, leisure, and participation in cultural and artistic life.
-Rewati Karan
