BENGALURU: With an aim to ensure that all children should enjoy play time, the Gayatri Devi Park near Mariyappan Palya bus stand was recently redesigned to make it more accessible to kids with diabilities.
The park, which was established in Rajaji Nagar’s Prakash Nagar ward in 2012 by Kilikili, an organisation that builds inclusive play spaces. However, the park was recently “re-energised” by Tamahar. Vaishali Pai, who started Tamahar, says the organisation will take disabled children to the park every Friday.
The goal of organisations like Kilikili, which was started, by Kavita Krishnamoorthy and Tamahar is to make parks in the city more accessible to children with disabilities.
Focusing on ‘inclusive play’ - a way of bridging the divide between mainstream and special needs children, the park is designed to ensure the all round development of the kids. The two important factors kept in mind while building such a park are safety and mental stimulation. The play equipment picked were checked to match child safety standards with stress on mental stimulation and tactile development.
The park is designed with railings everywhere with minimal spacing between them to avoid slips and falls. The slides are not too high and the swings are are designed like buckets with two holes for legs to hang comfortably.
To add visual and sensory stimulants to the experience, the swings are decked with gravel so that the students can feel and sense the texture and layers.
Vaishali says, “The outcome of the play should be a fun and learning experience. A lot of thought was put in while designing the place and since the kids have different special needs it was custom made for them with smooth pathways and play equipments”.
The swings are modified with a back support for children with spinal injury and the ones who cannot sit properly. The park also has a number of ramps and wedges for the wheelchairs to be wheeled around the park freely.
“There are slides, which are designed for the safety of kids and a merry go round, which can accommodate wheel chairs with special notches to hold them in place,” says Vaishali.
“Each child needs to be given a dignified life,” she says and adds that unfortunately very often people try to fix broken things especially when it comes to children. Tamahar believes in letting children be themselves.
Differently abled kids unlike other children miss out a lot since they are usually going to therapists, special schools and meeting doctors most of the time so they also organise events like dance classes, theatre and drama classes for the kids so that they can also enjoy other things.
Tripti, the Chief Executive Officer of Tamahar says, “It is a very fulfilling experience, and the satisfaction cannot be compared to anything else in the world”.
Currently, 62 children who have cerebral palsy, autism, epilepsy, and genetic disability are being supported by Tamahar with education and life skills.