Schoolchildren in Chennai may be great with spelling and arithmetic, but a majority of them do not have the basic skills to run and hop or catch a ball thrown at them, and cannot even balance themselves properly, a study conducted by a school-sports enterprise has found.

The nationwide study assessed around 20,000 school students, and in Tamil Nadu alone, seven cities and towns were covered.

Skills that were taken for granted even a decade ago are disappearing in today’s children, with parents and teachers encouraging them to spend more time indoors, studying, reading or ‘being quiet’— which translates into watching TV or playing a computer game.

“Ten years ago, even if children were not interested in playing strenuous sports like basketball or football, they used to play games like hopscotch, shuttle-cock and running and catching .

Traditional games like gilli-danda, ezhu kallu and kho-kho were favourites among girls as well and it helped them develop locomotor skills and spatial awareness, which is awareness of self space and boundaries,” explains Kalayani Arumugham, a former Physical Education teacher with the Chennai corporation.

“Physical activity not only helps them maintain a healthy weight, but it boosts appetite, immunity and energy levels,” she says, complaining that schools do not realize the importance of regular PT class, and don’t bother providing children with a playground.

“Today’s children prefer to sit indoors and exercise just their thumbs on the TV remote or their playstations. All their friends are online, and they prefer playing virtual sports to the real thing.

There is no park close to my house, and it’s too dangerous to allow my son to play on the streets, so he has got into the habit of spending his evenings at home,” says Manjula Viswam, a working mother who has to force her 11 year old son to take his skipping rope and get some exercise on their apartment terrace.

While physical inactivity makes children overweight and weakens their bones and muscles, the lack of exposure to good sunlight can cause rickets and Vitamin D deficiency, says pediatrician Dr J K Reddy.

In search of playgrounds

It’s not just the heat that is keeping children indoors this summer but also the absence of playgrounds in the city.

Take the case of R. Gautham and his friends from Choolaimedu. Says the boy, “If we want to play cricket we have to go to the playground on Trustpuram Second Cross Street.

Sometimes we are lucky and get a place on the turf , but other times we have to go back to playing on the street.

” Another teen, Niranjan, who is waiting for his class X results agrees that it’s very hard to find a ground to play in. “As we also cannot play on the streets, we can only play video games or watch television,” he adds.

“We talk of childhood obesity and the need for exercise but there are no playgrounds nearby and so our children are forced to stay at home instead of getting out to play,” complains S. Suresh, a parent.
Mr R. Govindaraj, joint general secretary, Exnora International, points out there are only a couple of grounds in T. Nagar and Kodambakkam and some don’t even have a compound wall.

Mr N. Umapathy, honorary secretary and chief coach of the Slum Children Sports Talent and Education Development Society, says that although there are playgrounds in North Madras, their condition is appalling.

“There are many football players who use the Kalyanapuram ground in Vyasarpadi. But it’s very badly maintained.

Such neglect and the lack of playgrounds push children into other activities,” he regrets, hoping that with the government now setting aside funds for improving playgrounds, they will get a makeover soon.

A corporation official contends there are around 230 playgrounds in the city and an additional 30 grounds have now been added to the list in the extensions.

“We are listing the playgrounds to improve their facilities. Each area prefers a different kind of sport, so we are focusing on equipping them accordingly,” he says, also assuring that the grounds will have compound walls shortly.

Budget kindles hopes for new play areas

The Chennai corporation, recently expanded to a sprawling 426 square kilometre, is on the job of ascertaining the infrastructure required for the suburbs merged with the civic body.
The annexed areas will get new playgrounds and parks.

But, as establishing playgrounds in the congested old areas of the city will be a difficult task, the top brass have instructed to look out for vacant government lands, a corporation official said.

“The mayor, in his budget, announced the formation of 100 new parks and playgrounds and most of these will come up in the recently-annexed areas.

We are also exploring to improve the parks within the core area of the city,” corporation commissioner D. Karthickeyan said.

“At least till the early ’90s the children had some open areas to play and suburbs like Ambattur and Avadi had large tracts of vacant land, but urbanisation has deprived children of playgrounds and physical activity,” said Mr S.J. Nelson, a retired physical director of a private school.

“Till 2010, the corporation was active in acquiring open space reserve lands and several plots were converted into parks.

The need of the hour is to establish more parks and playfields for children,” remarked former mayor M. Subramanian.

During the past four years, the corporation has recovered OSR lands worth over Rs 3,000 crore after the property owners failed to hand over these lands and now there is a need for a similar drive to create more parks and playgrounds for the city children who are deprived of open space, he added.