Of Dull Jacks And Jills This National Sports Day, we should begin a campaign demanding public playgrounds for our children

    As a mother, do you know what i pray for most for my twins Rengpa and Nainai? That they lead a happy, free and healthy life. My prayer is no different from that of every mother across our country. 

    Health is the key to success. If we are healthy, there are immense possibilities before us. The mind is capable of magic, but we need physical stamina and energy to transform this magic into reality. As a sportswoman, i can tell you with conviction that there is no better route to health than robust physical activity. Where i come from, and where my children are growing up, nature is all around us. 
    It's a common sight to see children racing down hills, playing in the rain, chasing each other through fields, or walking through the meadows to school. Rarely would you come across a child howling because of a scraped knee or a hurt elbow. Kids grow into strong, sturdy people with lots of physical energy and stamina. I attribute this glory of well-being to the region's open spaces and grounds that allow us to grow up in the midst of nature. 
    Following my recent Olympic win, i had the good fortune of travelling across the country, attending various felicitation programmes. In that time, i saw kids playing on roads with traffic zipping past them. I went to schools which had only one concrete building and not even a compound, leave alone a playground. High-rise apartment blocks were surrounded by roads but had no access to gardens or grounds. This lack of open playgrounds has amazed me. I find it strange to be in closed spaces all the time. How must little children feel, being confined in closed spaces with no outlets for their immense physical energy? 
    I have noticed how sluggish the 'healthy' urban children are, especially in comparison to children in my village. Children in cities look incapable of climbing even one small hill – something that would be child's play for many of us. 
    When i ask most people at these felicitation parties what their kids are doing, they proudly tell me how busy these kids are with their studies, tuitions and TV! It makes me wonder if after all this, they have any time at all to play. Video games and computer games hardly classify as play or sport. Childrenusually play in open spaces – parks, playgrounds, backyards – not in balconies, corridors, or worse, streets. 
    It's good to see our country progress with urbanisation and modern development plans, like in the West with its high-rises and skyscrapers. But progress can't come at the cost of freedom and childhood. As more villages become towns, more towns become cities and cities explode into metropolises, do we want our children to spend their childhood in jail? 
    We have all heard that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy or Jill a dull girl. This isn't just a maxim but a reality. I urge you all to look at play not as a waste of time but as a necessity. Playing encourages children to participate, socialise, cooperate and team up. It allows them to experiment with situations, toughening them up physically and mentally. Children are not trophies to be displayed, showcasing their excellence with a report card of 99% in all subjects. Children are free spirits who must conjoin with nature. Playgrounds allow children to get away from the drudgery of daily routine, to mingle with other kids, explore and enjoy their differences and similarities. 
    Playgrounds allow for imagination to grow – and with it creativity comes alive. Open playgrounds are a world where every child is an equal, with access to everything. They are often the first spaces that unearth hidden talents and sporting geniuses. Watch kids race, wrestle, box and scramble, all in fun, and you will know what reflexes your child uses the most and to best effect. School playgrounds are where first trophies and medals are won, where talents are spotted and groomed. Imagine our land without the delight of such fertile grooming spaces and the loss it means for children and childhood. 
    Why do cities, centres of wealth, succumb to greed and convert every open piece of land into vertical structures? Can't these cities be an example of how nature and growth can co-exist by showcasing the benefits of both? Why can't we as mothers demand playgrounds as a right to free living and an expression of childhood? As mothers, the guardians of our children's best interests, we would do well to take up cudgels for creating playgrounds. 
    We should insist that schools are not schools without open playgrounds. We need to build a movement with collaborative efforts. I know of corporate giants who are coming forward to build and maintain playgrounds. We as mothers can give direction to this attempt to protect our local spaces. This would indeed be the best gift we can give our children; a gift of healthy, energetic physically active adulthood, which will surely get them to say "Thank you, mom". 
    The writer is an Olympic medal winner.

Let children have a field day