This text was revealed in collaboration with EkStep Basis.
When Pooja Rai was a pupil of structure on the Indian Institute of Know-how (IIT), Kharagpur, she would volunteer at Disha Seema Care Centre, a faculty for underprivileged kids positioned on campus. Throughout one go to, she noticed just a few ladies enjoying on damaged cement pipes whereas some development work was happening close by.
“It was extraordinarily unsafe since you had wires popping out of the pipes and there have been damaged items of cement mendacity round. I additionally noticed some boys at college attempting to play a sport of badminton with their slippers. Although there was a lot pleasure in that house, it simply made me assume that these kids don’t even have entry to one thing so simple as a playground. Speaking to my good friend that night, we mentioned how we may use all of the design information that we realized to construct a playground for these children,” says Rai, talking to The Higher India.
On condition that Pooja and her batchmates had been college students, they didn’t have some huge cash. As an alternative of constructing a traditional playground with a jungle fitness center, merry go spherical and slides, they acquired modern, introduced just a few tires collectively, and constructed a unique sort of playground.
A ‘DIY’ playground
“Initially, we struggled to gather tires, however we acquired fortunate after reaching out to a couple corporations. Michelin, a world tyre producer, sponsored the very first playground we constructed. They despatched us used tires, with which we constructed swings and different play components for kids. In addition they sponsored part of the mission, whereas the remainder of the funding got here from our faculty alumni. We constructed our first playground in 2015 and it was fully DIY (‘do it your self’),” she remembers.
What Rai and her batchmates constructed right here was a low-cost (barely Rs 20,000) and sustainable playground for underprivileged kids. Based on Rai, mass produced leisure tools for constructing a playground on the time would usually value about Rs 2 lakh. What adopted was a variety of media protection and inquiries from throughout the nation to construct comparable buildings.
Quick ahead to January 2017, Rai and her pals give up their jobs full time and established a Bengaluru-based non-profit referred to as Anthill Creations, which “transforms areas into interactive and sustainable playgrounds by upcycling waste supplies like tyres, oil and cable drums.” To this point, they’ve constructed round 380 low-cost and sustainable playgrounds for kids throughout 22 states together with Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, Odisha, Meghalaya, Tripura, amongst others.
However why are playgrounds vital for kids within the first place? Educationists be aware that on the coronary heart of early childhood care and training (ECCE) is play-based studying.
Why play-based studying issues
“Primarily based on science and what we all know, and from a variety of expertise, play is a crucial method for the kid to be taught. On this context, it isn’t simply ‘enjoying’ as we all know it. It contains singing songs, conversations, tales, music, puzzles, dancing, and many others. It’s what the kid does naturally, or as we are saying, ‘play is little one’s work’. When a toddler is enjoying, they’re studying,” mentioned Shankar Maruwada, CEO and co-founder of EkStep Basis and member, Nationwide Steering Committee for the Nationwide Curriculum Frameworks (NCF), in an earlier interplay with The Higher India.
This line of pondering has been emphasised by policymakers in India with the New Training Coverage (NEP) 2020 and the Nationwide Curriculum Framework for Faculty Training (NCF) 2023.
(You may learn extra about play-based studying right here and right here.)
Whereas there are totally different modes of play, a playground presents one of many key platforms the place a toddler can have interaction in play-based studying for cognitive and behavioural improvement. However almost half of all public-funded faculties in India don’t have playgrounds, notes authorities knowledge.
Based on the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) 2017-18 survey, lower than 57% of colleges have playgrounds. In states like Odisha and Jammu and Kashmir, lower than 30% of colleges have playgrounds. Different surveys point out that even main cities don’t have sufficient playgrounds. Take Bengaluru, for instance.
Based on Janaagraha, a Bengaluru-based think-tank, “With a inhabitants of 12 million (unofficial estimate, 8.4 million as per 2011 census) and an space of 709 sq.km, town of Bengaluru has solely 19.31 sq.km devoted in direction of open areas like parks and playgrounds. This interprets to 2.2 sq.m of open house per particular person, which is considerably in need of the beneficial 10-12 sq.m by the URDPFI (City and Regional Growth Plans Formulation and Implementation*) pointers set by the Ministry of City Growth (MoUD), India.” What’s worse, solely 39% of playgrounds within the metropolis have enjoying tools and amenities.
Srikanth Viswanathan, CEO at Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, notes that though the survey was taken in 2017, “issues haven’t modified a lot since”.
That is an unlucky actuality even if the Proper of Kids to Free and Obligatory Training Act, 2009 (RTE) legislated by Parliament mandates that every one school-going kids between the ages of 6 and 14 needs to be assured entry to playgrounds.
Accessibility for all
What does it take to construct a playground? Chatting with The Higher India, Rai begins with first ideas. “The fundamental precept we observe is that the place there’s a want for a playground and other people can not afford it, we’re blissful to construct these buildings in these areas,” she says.
“What now we have seen in the previous few years is that even when we construct one or two playgrounds within the space, it motivates different folks within the surrounding areas and creates consciousness across the significance of play and the way a lot good it will probably do. The playground can be normally shared by close by communities or faculties. It’s not restricted to the one college the place we constructed it,” she provides.
To date, Anthill Creations has constructed playgrounds in main cities like Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai to the distant corners of states like Meghalaya and Tripura. Right here’s an instance of how they constructed playgrounds for 4 authorities faculties in rural Meghalaya.
Chatting with The Higher India, Abhishek Gowda, the sub-divisional officer (civil) of Dadenggre [subdivision] in West Garo Hills district, Meghalaya, remembers the work Anthill did.
“In January 2023, Anthill Creations approached me to facilitate the positioning choice course of for these playgrounds underneath their mission titled ‘Carry Again Play by Making it Accessible to All’. Their crew visited round 10 rural faculties in my sub-division, and finalised on 4 the place they’d construct playgrounds. By the tip of March, the Anthill crew started constructing these playgrounds utilizing outdated rubber tires and different scrap materials. You had see-saws, elephant-shaped play components and swings made from scrap rubber tires,” says Gowda.
After establishing these playgrounds, the Anthill crew carried out an intensive high quality verify course of to make sure that these buildings are protected for kids to make use of.
“As soon as the standard verify was accomplished, they handed over the playgrounds to their respective faculties and communities. By the tip of April, these playgrounds had been constructed and able to use. Immediately, kids are literally utilising these playgrounds with a variety of enthusiasm and happiness. These playgrounds have additionally reworked the surroundings in these faculties,” he provides.
Gowda and his administration’s job in constructing these playgrounds was easy. They offered any administrative and logistical help the Anthill crew wanted. Funding for this mission got here from the Nationwide Funds Company of India (NPCI)’s CSR fund and all of the work of really deciding on the websites and constructing these playgrounds was accomplished by the Anthill crew.
“Though the principle goal is to develop play-based studying infrastructure for early childhood improvement, we’ve seen enhancements at school enrolment numbers and discount in dropouts. Because of these vibrant playgrounds, the ambiance in these faculties really feel much more welcoming to kids,” notes Gowda.
Round 80% of the playgrounds Anthill has constructed are in authorities faculties, however in addition they construct them in public locations. “We’ve constructed a variety of public park playgrounds in Bengaluru like in Agara Lake, for instance. We additionally partnered with one other organisation referred to as Recity to start out constructing playgrounds in vacationer hotspots Nainital and Darjeeling in order that there’s extra consciousness round recycling. These are locations the place lots of people go to, in order that they generate a variety of waste,” says Rai.
“But it surely’s difficult for us to work in public areas since you’d must work with a number of authorities. It’s troublesome to get permission from all stakeholders on the similar time,” she provides.
Colleges, nevertheless, are the place most youngsters are current. “And usually, what I’ve seen in authorities faculties is that they maintain their playgrounds open to neighbouring kids. So, it’s not likely simply the varsity kids who’re enjoying in these playgrounds,” says Rai.
From elephants and horses to rockets on the playground
When Rai and her colleagues began constructing playgrounds, they didn’t wish to construct the everyday components that exist already like a jungle fitness center, see-saw, merry go spherical, and many others.
“The right approach to go about any design is asking the consumer what they wish to do. Within the early days, we’d discuss to the youngsters. A few of the very first designs that we developed had been due to kids. We used to go to those faculties in Bengaluru, conduct actions and play video games with them. Kids used to give you superb concepts. They’d need a slide from their classroom to the playground or a water fountain popping out of a slide. We didn’t precisely translate what they mentioned however we acquired a way of what they needed in a playground,” she says.
A few of the play components you see on playgrounds constructed by Anthill like octopus, elephants or horses got here from kids. Different kids needed a rocket of their playground.
“We tried to include a few of these main structural designs, but in addition maintain actions in thoughts once we had been designing these last components. It took a variety of iterations. Not all of our design components grew to become profitable within the first go, however we search to make sure a relentless suggestions loop that occurred. We nonetheless have interaction in these processes, however at the moment now we have round 100 totally different designs in our design library though we nonetheless take requests,” explains Rai.
“Since we’re working at a a lot bigger scale at the moment, now we have this written website survey kind that both we fill once we go to a website or there’s a area people or a instructor who fills it out for us. That principally captures what kids want and if there may be something in particular that like that individual group or college needs to do, we have a look at our design library and see what suits nicely into this playground. We attempt to go away some house for designing new components as nicely as a result of we wish to give some distinctive contact to most of our playgrounds,” she provides.
How do they make these playgrounds inclusive?
As acknowledged earlier, there are playgrounds with components that didn’t come from their design library. In spite of everything, they must cater to quite a lot of kids, together with these residing with disabilities.
In October 2021, they constructed a playground in collaboration with the Sankalp Studying Centre in Chennai for kids with autism and mental disabilities.
“We didn’t have a playground designed for autistic kids in our library. For initiatives like these, we frolicked with the youngsters, understanding what works for them, what is going to assist in their remedy and use tactile sensors within the playgrounds which could assist them. When it comes to design, we needed to do one thing tactile. We needed kids to simply really feel totally different sorts of senses and construct one thing that they’ll contact with their arms and in addition play with,” says Rai.
“We included a xylophone for sensory stimulation, parallel pay bars for wrist and finger actions, a seesaw to encourage steadiness and physique coordination, and a low top climber to make sure muscular motion and security for the youngsters whereas at play,” she provides.
Rai admits that Anthill’s playgrounds aren’t fully inclusive but, however they attempt to make them accessible. “We’re incorporating play components utilized in playgrounds constructed for the visually-impaired in all our playgrounds. For instance, now we have launched sound components like xylophone or bells in all our playgrounds. The purpose is to make playgrounds inclusive,” she says.
Constructing ‘group champions’
What Anthill has learnt through the years is that it’s higher to contain the group early within the course of proper from the positioning choice to what they’re designing. After they contain the group from the start, they take higher possession of the playgrounds. Sometimes, what Anthill does is construct a playground, and arms it over to the group to care for it.
However how do they receive group buy-in for these playgrounds? “After we work in a brand new geography, there’s at all times an area organisation or NGO who might need been working in these communities for years and have already got that relationship constructed with them. After they deliver us in, there may be that sense of respect and belief already established once we go in. On our finish, we additionally spend time with folks explaining to them what construction goes to return up right here,” says Rai.
To take care of prices, Anthill largely procures supplies domestically and employs native labour.
“Given the weather that we’ve designed are easy and primary like tires and metallic drums, and interact in recycling and upcycling, it doesn’t make sense to move issues from Bengaluru to Tripura. We procure supplies domestically as a result of it saves value, obtainable domestically. The place it turns into difficult is to make sure the standard that we would like in these components,” she explains.
“To beat these considerations, now we have a set of distributors in Kolkata, Delhi and Bengaluru, and we transport these joineries from one central hub to wherever we’re constructing playgrounds. Components like tires and metallic, we procure domestically as a result of these are like the larger bulk of what we sort of use to design these playgrounds. Given now we have now constructed playgrounds in 22 totally different states, now we have recognized distributors and all of those communities,” she provides.
Additionally, as acknowledged earlier, Anthill doesn’t take possession of the playgrounds they construct.
“We’re simply facilitators who’re enabling the area people or the varsity to construct a playground. We usher in funding with the assistance of an organization and supply our experience in methods to assemble the playground. However after these six days of intervention, our main position is full in constructing the playground and we hand it over to the group,” she says.
Whether or not this handover interval is over one or three months, it varies primarily based on the place the playground is positioned. They usually full constructing the playground in six days.
“On the final day, we do a top quality verify with the company who’s funding the mission and the native headmaster, and be sure that the playground we’ve constructed meets all the fundamental high quality measures. After which we proceed in direction of our adoption plan. We determine one group champion. It might be anybody from a headmaster to a instructor or an alumni of that faculty, who was concerned in constructing that playground and is blissful to volunteer their time. We preserve correspondence with them. After one month, we contact them to do a primary verify on how kids are enjoying in these playgrounds. We have now a questionnaire that they reply to assist us assess the affect of this playground. We get each quantitative and qualitative suggestions and at any time when we’re constructing a brand new play ingredient, we obtain some additional suggestions,” she explains.
‘Our playgrounds are like IKEA blocks’
Other than handing their playgrounds over to communities, every year (or as soon as in two years) Anthill organises a drive the place their crew travels and conducts checks to determine the state of our older playgrounds. Making issues simpler, their playgrounds are low-maintenance.
“Since our playgrounds are DIY, we don’t refabricate (play components like) a traditional merry go spherical. If there’s a screw coming free, it’s important to change the merry go spherical fully. Our playgrounds are like IKEA blocks. You may repair them, take them off if you need and put them in one other place held collectively by nuts and bolts,” claims Rai.
To facilitate play for younger kids, Anthill Creations has give you quite a lot of improvements to facilitate higher inclusivity and work inside the confines of various circumstances. For instance, they got here up with the idea of a Play Library. “So, we used smaller tires to create seating areas in a extra fascinating method the place all the house felt very inviting for kids to play. We had principally transformed a library right into a play space,” remembers Rai.
Nonetheless, one among Rai’s favorite improvements in recent times is this idea referred to as ‘Playground on Wheels’ which Anthill has developed. “And this concept truthfully got here once we had been going round discovering areas in Mumbai and Bengaluru on the place we are able to construct these playgrounds for faculties that contained three or 4 storeys and nothing else,” she says.
In Mumbai, she remembers a instructor telling her that her college students actually wanted house to play.
“So we got here up with this idea of Playground on Wheels, which is principally a truck transformed right into a playground. It may be shared amongst totally different neighbourhoods and it will probably go from one place to a different. As soon as the truck playground arrives at a location and opens up, you’ll discover climbers, sandbox and different tactile components that permit kids to play in teams. Every time the truck arrives, it turns into play time for these kids,” she explains.
“It’s a bit like ice cream vans coming round, but in addition signifying to kids that that is their playtime. Within the subsequent couple of months, we are going to construct our first prototype of that truck. We additionally received an award from the Authorities of India for designing this Playground on Wheels and hoping it will likely be applied very quickly,” she provides.
Have you ever come throughout any modern concepts or development executed in playgrounds in your metropolis? We’d love to listen to all about it. Ship footage and details about the playground to [email protected] with the topic line “Childhood Dialogues”.
(Edited by Divya Sethu; Photographs courtesy Anthill Creations)
