INDIA BEATS
Play means serious business
HARIPRIYA SRINIVASAN
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An attempt to make parks accessible to differently-abled children has borne fruit in Bangalore.
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Photo: Courtesy Kilikili
Time for play: Coles Park is India's first Universally Accessible Public Park.
"There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago."
J. Robert Oppenheimer
"I WAS hooked," reminisces the feisty Kavitha Krishnamoorthy, founder of Kilikili, an organisation dedicated to the creation of Universally Accessible Playgrounds for children in Bangalore. She was referring to her 20-year long tryst with Child Rights. While a volunteering experience with YUVA, an NGO, during her college days in Mumbai can be described as its genesis; little did she know that she had already been claimed.
Kilikili is a network of parents of children with disabilities, which aims at making parks accessible to all children, regardless of their ability. Kilikili roughly translates to "wobbling, laughter of a child" in Kannada and was born out of a single question in December 2005. "Isn't it strange that no differently-enabled children can be seen at public parks? Where do parents take them to play?" wondered Kavitha's husband. He had, unwittingly, initiated new beginnings.
Challenging process
"Children and play cannot be separated," insists Kavitha, who set out on a challenging process of discovery. Guidance came in the form of Scott Williams and Catherine-Curry Williams in California. "Shane's Inspiration", the first and largest Universally Accessible Playground in Western United States is their tribute to their son Shane Alexander, who succumbed to Spinal Muscular Atrophy in 1997. Spread over a sprawling two acres, it provides a rare opportunity for disabled and able-bodied children to experience and accept one another through play.
"Marginalisation is the bane that most special children undergo whether it is in the schools or in the play spaces," says Rani Benedict, a dynamic professional and mother and an active member of Kilikili. Playing with friends and independently in school playgrounds and public parks is one of the fundamental rights of a child, a right that most challenged kids are denied. Besides, the vital role of play in the early development of a child is an indisputable fact.
Kilikili's efforts bore fruit in the summer of 2006 when Coles Park was chosen as the first Public Park where modifications would be made. It is the nation's first Universally Accessible Public Park. The children were consulted on the changes that needed to be incorporated. The organisation is striving to do away with the invisibility factor — the fact that challenged children cannot be spotted alongside normal children on play equipment found in public parks.
Urgent need
Integration also tops their agenda. As an increasing number of challenged children begin to taste and savour the simple joys of childhood, a two-way learning, communication and evolution process would have been set in motion. "We have the largest number of children in the world and we will progress as a nation for the next 30-40 years thanks to them, but why are open spaces out of bounds for children?" asks Chitra Vishwanath, one of the architects who helped the modification process at Coles Park. She believes there is an urgent need for the bureaucracy and authorities to address this issue. Imagine a `safe' swing for your little one as she swings for the first time with her `normal' friends. Even a wheelchair won't come in the way on this special merry-go-round designed exclusively for the wheelchair-bound kids at Coles Park.
This is only the beginning for Kilikili and its members who believe that more parks in the city need to be included in the modification process. "One park is not enough to make a dent. It has to become a larger movement," said Kavitha. Margaret Mead's immortal words played in my head as I turned to leave: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
India Beats features stories of the unusual, the exotic and the extraordinary.
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