Special children to have playground of their own

Arijit Chakma Prithu has a disliking for claw hair clips. One afternoon six years ago this autistic young man was out walking in the city's Chandrima Udyan. He saw a girl with such a clip and grabbed it.

It took a lot of effort from his mother Subarna Chakma to explain Arijit's condition and dissuade three youths accompanying the girl from assaulting her son.

Arijit's family has since hardly taken the now 26-year-old to public places.

Like Arijit's, many other families refrain from taking their loved ones with special needs to playgrounds and parks to avoid facing such situations.

Consequently, this impedes mental and physical growth of challenged people. 

Taking this into consideration, the government has started constructing presumably the country's first playground dedicated to people with special needs.

A 4.16-acre land at the corner of Manik Mia Avenue and Mirpur Road, near the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, was handed over to National Foundation for Development of the Disabled Persons by Public Works Department on December 18 last year for the construction.

The playground will have some benches and a toilet while other components required would be decided upon later.

“We have already started the construction work. We will open it soon. We will do everything without obstructing people's view of the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban,” said AKM Maksudul Arefin, deputy director of the Foundation.

The playground will be a blessing for people with disabilities, helping their physical and physiological development, he added.

Apart from being a place for recreation, it would be a space where caregivers would gather and share experiences on better treatment of people with special needs.

There are around 15 lakh people with special needs in the country, including some 35,000 in Dhaka, according to statistics of the Disability Detection Survey Programme of the social welfare ministry.

Welcoming the move, Arijit's mother Subarna said she would surely take him there. “I think many other parents would do so. It would be their own world where nobody will bother them.”

Another mother of a 19-year-old autistic, Prof Sharmind Neelormi of Jahangirnagar University termed the playground a gift for children with special needs.

She said visitors there would have better acceptance towards challenged people. She urged the authorities to ensure tight security at the playground.

Thirteen-year-old Shaheen of Tejkunipara was elated to hear about the playground. He said he likes sports, but none of those who come to play in the school field near his residence wanted to play with him for a leg deformity he had since birth.

“I must go to the playground and play,” he said.

Prof Azizur Rahman of Dhaka University's psychology department said specially-abled people also have demands and emotional cravings. They suffer mental pain as they cannot play at playgrounds like the other children.

“If they can play in fields, they would have much pleasure. As a result, they would have natural physical and mental growth,” he added.