After Chennai, the Kozhikode Municipal Corporation in Kerala
has opened an exclusive park for disabled children at the Mananchira
Square in the city.
The park has been built at the popular Ansari Literary Park in partnership
with ESAF as part of the United Nations Habitat for the city
corporation. It has got a big thumbs up from members of the disabled
community, activists and NGOs.
Prajith Jaipal, a disability rights activist in Kozhikode,
who recently visited the United States to attend an accessibility expo, says
this is a major step towards inclusion.
I believe inclusion must start off from children. Hence, places like
schools and parks are the ideal places to begin with. More than
infrastructural changes, people’s attitudes towards disabilities must
change. Nothing like catching them at a young age. I appreciate the efforts
taken by Kozhikode Corporation and ESAF in introducing this. Authorities
must also ensure that there are facilities like accessible washrooms with
ramps so that children can spend more time at the parks. –Prajith
Jaipal, Activist
Merry go rounds, swings, seesaws and play houses for disabled children and a
sensory wall for children who are visually impaired are some of the major
attractions at the park.
Many parents have welcomed the move. , mother to a teenager with muscular
dystrophy, says her son suffered due to lack of access to such parks as a
child.
“When my son was a child, we used to take him to parks but he never got the
chance to get onto anything because they were not accessible. So he used to
sit in the car outside the parks and watch other kids play. I knew that he
longed to go there and play along with them. He has been on a wheelchair
since the last few years and even now we take him to check out parks once in
a while. This is a great step to inclusion”, says Kumari.
Rs eight lakh has been spent on the equipment here and children can visit
from morning till 7 pm. With summer vacations round the corner, disabled
children can have a novel experience playing and indulging with peers at this
new park at Kozhikode.
ALSO READ: Chennai’s largest disabled-friendly children’s park is open to the
public
Source: https://newzhook.com/story/21177
