Shimla: Once famous for its parks and walks, the hill city today does not have not sufficient parks for children and even those that are around are in deplorable state. Whats worse, the little breathing space for children is being eyed by vehicle owners to convert into parking spaces to deny children a playful childhood.
Sanjauli Children Park is in such a bad condition that even children, have kept away from it for the last couple of months and the place wears a deserted look.
Located in the middle of a residential colony, the slides, swings and other playing equipment in the park is in a broken state and could injure any child who is tempted to play in the ruins.
“The Municipal Corporation has turned a blind eye to this park as no steps are
taken to restore the equipments and beautify the place.” said Devender Sharma, a resident of Sanjauli.
Guru Dev Verma, a sresident of the locality said, “This Park is unable to attract children as nobody wants to play here because of its bad condition.”
“In Sanjauli most of the public space is occupied by vehicle
parkings and there is hardly any space left for children to play,” said Chander Verma, also a resident of the area.
Not having any place to play, Kanika Sharma, a class 3 student says “we don’t have any place to play here so either we play on the roads or either go to the Cemetery.
“We avoid the park,” says Ruchika Verma, a friend of Kanika, as our parents tell us that one could injure oneself with the old and creaky playing equipment lying around there.
When contacted Municipal Commissioner Amarjeet Singh said, “We are aware about the bad condition of this park, but some residents of Sanjauli are in favor of constructing a parking place in that place.”
He also said that there was an immense need of Children Parks in the city so that they can get proper places to play in.
Photo by Arvind Kumar
An intern at Hill Post, Arvind is pursuing masters in mass communication at Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla. Previously, he has interned with HT Media Ltd.
A young journalist in making, Arvind loves photography, traveling, playing chess and listening to music.
