Bhubaneswar Comes Up With Innovative Playgrounds For Underprivileged Kids

Bhubaneswar: In order to ensure that underprivileged children don’t miss out on play, the city administration has converted a few neglected sites into colourful playgrounds.

The first-of-its-kind project in the city called ‘Rewind Play’ is a joint initiative by Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Under the project, discarded tyres from cars, trucks and tractors have got a makeover as fun and colourful play equipment to create innovative, low-cost playgrounds. The aim is to provide children enough opportunities for outdoor activities in an age of rapid urbanization and shrinking open spaces.

The civic bodies in association with Anthill Creations, a Bengaluru-based non-profit organisation, had set up various types of play equipment like ‘The Heaving Hoops’, ‘Stepping Stones’, ‘Cube Climber’, ‘Swings’ ‘Caterpillars’ and ‘Twisters’ at five locations in the city including the campuses of three government-run schools.

The locations where the playgrounds were created are Ekamra Vihar Primary School at Salia Sahi, Bapujinagar UGUP School, Nursery School for Dumb and Deaf at Palashpalli, FCI Colony Shantinagar Slum and Birsa Munda Ground at Salia Sahi.

The entire process, starting from site identification to panting of tyres and then handover of playgrounds to respective schools or communities, was completed within 60 days.

These playscapes are largely made of locally-sourced waste materials, mostly scrap tyres that otherwise get dumped in landfills or are burnt releasing toxins into the environment. Scrap materials also bring down expenses significantly. The cost of building one of the playscapes is only one-third that of building a traditional metal park of the same size.

At present, more than 800 children from disadvantaged backgrounds are playing like never before as these innovative playgrounds have provided the kids a greater outdoor activity in a cost efficient manner.