Playgrounds by People4People

The trust fund People4people believes that the fundamental right of each child is uninhibited playtime! The happiness derived from zipping down a slide, climbing up a jungle gym and bopping around on a seesaw does not need an explanation or a description.

In India there are millions of children and yet, paradoxically, not enough play spaces or areas for them. The richer children have playgrounds at school, in their neighbourhoods, at the clubs they visit. The poorer children are content with sandpits at construction sites or nothing at all. The poorest children in India go to government schools-free education but with limited resources and no play equipment for children. Interestingly many of these government schools have vast areas of unutilised land surrounding the school building.

The trust aims to put up playgrounds for use by children from poorer localities. Thus far People4people has put up more than 478 playgrounds in government schools, mainly in the Whitefield/Hoskote area, including one in a village school in Tamil Nadu destroyed by the Tsunami. When they put up their first playground in the Thubarahally government school in Whitefield the joyous kids were on the slide even before the paint on it dried! The sparkle in their eyes made the effort worthwhile. And the reaction has been duplicated at every playground that has been put up.