Reza Mahmud :
Children in the capital city of Dhaka are deprived of amusement facilities due to lack of parks, playgrounds and open spaces.
There is only one children park named ‘Shahid Zia Shishu Park’ at Shahbagh under the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) area. But there is no Children Park under Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) which has recently closed the lone one ‘Shyamoli Shishu Mela’ due to some legal disputes.
Earlier, the authorities evicted a private amusement park ‘Wonderland’ in city’s Gulshan area which used to draw huge crowd, especially children, during weekends.
According to citizens’ charter, every ward under Dhaka City Corporations has their own playgrounds and parks for the children.
Besides, the rules of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) defined to have playground and parks for the children in every sector of residential areas.
But the authorities are not paying heed to these rules and citizens charter largely ignoring the needs of amusement to the children, according to experts.
They said, the children of Dhaka city really passing their times less of amusements because the authorities have snatched the happiness and joys from the life of our next generation by evicting the parks and grabbing playgrounds.
“Our children are passing their school vacations at their homes due to lack of play grounds or parks in the city. They become mentally sick and many disorders grip them as a result of passing their days without leisure,” Sarwar Azam Khan, a guardian who lives in Rampura, told The New Nation on Friday.
“We have passed our childhood with huge amusement facilities as there were many parks and playgrounds for children. But now there are no empty spaces in the city for our children to play,” he added.
There are more than 50 parks under the two
City Corporations, according to the documents. But those parks are not really in the existence as most of them went to the grabbers’ hands.
High-rise buildings and establishments were built in these places. The remaining parks are not being used due to pollutions, mismanagement and unlawful activities there, sources said.
Children are not going to the parks due to hazardous environment now prevailing there. Even the parks have no rides or other playing items for children. Some parks have few rides but those went out of order due to maintenance and carelessness.
The street people and addicts are taking shelters in those parks now so the children kept away from those places.
Under these circumstances, the guardians are relying on Shahid Zia Shishu Park at Shahbagh, the only government park for the children in the city. But the children are not getting proper amusements in this park because of huge gathering and space shortage.
“There are huge pressures for every ride here. Children need to wait for long time. They feel pain in their legs due to standby long time in the row to get chance in every ride. It creates unhappiness instead of joy for the kids,” Selima Begum, a housewife of Dhanmondi, told The New Nation on Friday.
Another guardian accused that many of the rides have seen unusable frequently. They alleged that the ‘Roman Cycle’ is stayed out of use near to one year. Many of ‘go karts’ found broken frequently. As a result, the children could not enjoy their times in the park.
Officials said, the City Corporations allocated sufficient amount of money to develop the parks. But most of the allotments remain useless. DNCC allocated Tk 7.50 crore for the fiscal year 2015-16. But they use only Tk 2 crore in that year. This year DNCC allotted Tk 67 crore from its own and foreign funds.
Architect Iqbal Habib said, the problem is not about lack of money. But it is lack of sincerity and honesty. The City Corporations should announce their plans about the development of the parks.
Superintendent Engineer of DNCC Tarik Bin Usuf said, “The City Corporation is planning to reconstructions of Banani Shishu Park with new and modern rides for the children soon. At the same time it started development works of a park at Sector-7 in Uttara to reduce the lack of amusement centers of the children.”
Children in the capital city of Dhaka are deprived of amusement facilities due to lack of parks, playgrounds and open spaces.
There is only one children park named ‘Shahid Zia Shishu Park’ at Shahbagh under the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) area. But there is no Children Park under Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) which has recently closed the lone one ‘Shyamoli Shishu Mela’ due to some legal disputes.
Earlier, the authorities evicted a private amusement park ‘Wonderland’ in city’s Gulshan area which used to draw huge crowd, especially children, during weekends.
According to citizens’ charter, every ward under Dhaka City Corporations has their own playgrounds and parks for the children.
Besides, the rules of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) defined to have playground and parks for the children in every sector of residential areas.
But the authorities are not paying heed to these rules and citizens charter largely ignoring the needs of amusement to the children, according to experts.
They said, the children of Dhaka city really passing their times less of amusements because the authorities have snatched the happiness and joys from the life of our next generation by evicting the parks and grabbing playgrounds.
“Our children are passing their school vacations at their homes due to lack of play grounds or parks in the city. They become mentally sick and many disorders grip them as a result of passing their days without leisure,” Sarwar Azam Khan, a guardian who lives in Rampura, told The New Nation on Friday.
“We have passed our childhood with huge amusement facilities as there were many parks and playgrounds for children. But now there are no empty spaces in the city for our children to play,” he added.
There are more than 50 parks under the two
City Corporations, according to the documents. But those parks are not really in the existence as most of them went to the grabbers’ hands.
High-rise buildings and establishments were built in these places. The remaining parks are not being used due to pollutions, mismanagement and unlawful activities there, sources said.
Children are not going to the parks due to hazardous environment now prevailing there. Even the parks have no rides or other playing items for children. Some parks have few rides but those went out of order due to maintenance and carelessness.
The street people and addicts are taking shelters in those parks now so the children kept away from those places.
Under these circumstances, the guardians are relying on Shahid Zia Shishu Park at Shahbagh, the only government park for the children in the city. But the children are not getting proper amusements in this park because of huge gathering and space shortage.
“There are huge pressures for every ride here. Children need to wait for long time. They feel pain in their legs due to standby long time in the row to get chance in every ride. It creates unhappiness instead of joy for the kids,” Selima Begum, a housewife of Dhanmondi, told The New Nation on Friday.
Another guardian accused that many of the rides have seen unusable frequently. They alleged that the ‘Roman Cycle’ is stayed out of use near to one year. Many of ‘go karts’ found broken frequently. As a result, the children could not enjoy their times in the park.
Officials said, the City Corporations allocated sufficient amount of money to develop the parks. But most of the allotments remain useless. DNCC allocated Tk 7.50 crore for the fiscal year 2015-16. But they use only Tk 2 crore in that year. This year DNCC allotted Tk 67 crore from its own and foreign funds.
Architect Iqbal Habib said, the problem is not about lack of money. But it is lack of sincerity and honesty. The City Corporations should announce their plans about the development of the parks.
Superintendent Engineer of DNCC Tarik Bin Usuf said, “The City Corporation is planning to reconstructions of Banani Shishu Park with new and modern rides for the children soon. At the same time it started development works of a park at Sector-7 in Uttara to reduce the lack of amusement centers of the children.”
